The St. Lawrence Starch Company of Port Credit, Ontario was the company that issued those fabulous Bee Hive Hockey pictures during its now legendary promotion which lasted from 1934 to 1967. All an enterprising young fellow had to do to score one of the pictures was mail in proof of purchase collars or labels:
From Bee Hive Corn Syrup, St. Lawrence Corn Oil or the company's various starches:
The above is the back cover of one of the Bee Hive Scribblers in my collection.
Sadly the Bee Hive Hockey pictures promotion flew under my radar as a kid despite the fact that my mother would occasionally buy St. Lawrence Corn Oil (if it was at a good price that week of course). We never bought Bee Hive Corn Syrup though because my father's considered opinion was "There's honey!" Moreover by 1961 or so when I turned nine the Bee Hive Hockey pictures promotion had waned considerably in popularity due to the widespread appeal of instantly available Topps and Parkhurst Hockey cards, Shirriff Hockey coins, York Peanut Butter Hockey cards and other promotions featuring coloured pictures of hockey players. None of the kids in my circle of acquaintances collected the Bee Hives.
In 1979 however I moved to Clarkson, Ontario just a scant four miles west along Lakeshore Road of the historic St. Lawrence Starch Company's plant in Port Credit. Here's a picture of the plant circa 1950:
Here are pictures decades apart of a couple of transport trucks sporting St. Lawrence livery:
St. Lawrence also maintained a fleet of at least eight Bee Hive tanker cars delivering corn syrup to customers throughout eastern Canada as far away as Ganong Brothers in New Brunswick. Other customers included the huge McCormick's Biscuits plant on Dundas Street in my hometown of London as well as O-Pee-Chee just over two kilometres further west down Dundas Street.
So fabled are these Bee Hive Corn Syrup tank cars that MTH Electric Trains has produced them in O-scale:
By the 1980's I had an adult's full appreciation of living only a long walk from the site of a legendary Canadian enterprise and I became a loyal Bee Hive Corn Syrup customer which I've remained to this very day. But production at the plant sadly ceased in March 1990 and the erection of condominiums at the site commenced in the late 1990's. Now I regret not buying more St. Lawrence Corn Oil and Bee Hive Corn Syrup when I could and collecting the Hockey pictures as a kid.
You never know what you've got till it's gone, and sadly the St. Lawrence Starch, McCormick's Biscuits and O-Pee-Chee companies are all gone. Only the memories and name brands still remain.
