This year’s San Diego County fair will feature a display of the memorabilia from the Heinz Ketchup Company.
Eastlake resident and former Heinz worker Lou Bareno submitted the memorabilia
“This is just a collection of what I collected over my 28 years with Heinz,” he said. “Heinz has a rich history and is a household name so I wanted to share this memorabilia with the public.”
The display will be in the home and hobby exhibit hall for five weeks, starting at the fair’s opening June 3 through its closure on July 4.
For consideration, Bareno needed to send in a one-page eight by 11 description of the display and how he got started collecting the memorabilia. To his surprise, he said, the fair picked up his display.
Bareno said he’s always thought about entering the Heinz display for consideration, but the 86-year-old was more convinced to submit it this year because he said it was now or never.
“Every year I am always thinking about submitting my memorabilia to the fair,” he said. “I finally said ‘Ok let’s do it’ because I am getting old.”
Items that will be on display include Heinz aprons, mugs, old ketchup and mustard bottles, a Heinz clock and Heinz Christmas gifts.
“Having a display at the fair is nostalgic,” Bareno said. “Heinz is one of the original named brands in the food business and probably one of the oldest, established in 1869.
Bareno said after the fair is over he plans to give all the items away to his family members for safekeeping and memories.
“These items are good memories,” he said. “And its time I share these old memories with my family.”
Before Bareno took up a job with Heinz, he fought in the after the Korean War. After the war enrolled in some college courses took a few sales courses, and sold insurance part-time. Shortly after, the opportunity to work for Heinz came up.
He worked for Heinz for 30 years from 1962-1992 where he started out selling Heinz products at grocery stores. He then moved to the Los Angeles office responsible for selling Heinz products to restaurants and grocery stores in San Diego and Yuma, AZ., where he became the territory manager.
After he retired from Heinz in 1992, he continued to sell Heinz products as a broker up until 2008.
Bareno takes credit for designing Heinz’s picnic pack, which packages ketchup, mustard, relish and other Heinz items together.
He said today the picnic pack is sold in grocery stores all over the world.
“That was the highlight of my career,” he said.
