Nostalgia Corner

[BarryBobPosthole]

I wonder, who here has ever sold pop bottles to buy bait/gas/baloney and bread, whatever to go fishing. My first cousin is a year older than me and he got an old ‘61 Chevy Impala when he turned 16. It expanded our fishing universe exponentially. We both went to work for a while every summer but we were expert at finding pop bottles and selling them to put a couple bucks worth of gas in his Chevy to get us to some water we wanted to fish.

Was thinking about that this morning. Our parents pretty much turned us loose on the world at that age. We camped and hunted and hiked and fished together all over the place for many years after that.
BKB

[Big Skyz]

I never bought fishing related gear with pop bottle sales, but I definitely was into finding and selling them. As a young kid in Southern Arizona we had a routine on Saturday mornings. We would start by looking for pop bottles (usually around gas stations). Then we would go to Circle K and get paid for the. We would use the money to buy a soda pop. Before opening it we would walk another 1/2 a mile or so to Dunkin Donuts. We had discovered that they put the donuts from the day before out back in 5 gallon buckets behind the store. We were kids and didn't care if they were a day old or not. For that matter I still don't care. Anyway after collecting all our loot we'd sit around and drink pop and eat donuts. Quite the sugar high. It was around a 2 1/2 to 3 mile route we would walk. I don't think kids today would walk across the street to do the same thing. To this day I don't think parents ever knew.

[Thumper]

That was my main source of income from a VERY early age, starting at 5-6 years old and probably until I was 9 or 10, when I started a lawn mowing service. I'd still pick up any stray coke bottles I'd stumble on, but didn't go actively looking for them once I had my lawn service. BTW, if I could stumble on some sort of construction site, that was always a gold mine for bottles. I'd haul my little red wagon behind me and pick up coke bottles (only Yankees called them pop or soda bottles). Coke was a PRODUCT that came in Coke (with a capital "C") bottles, any other "soft drink" came in a coke bottle. Much like any vehicle that had 4-wd was a jeep, or if it was a JEEP, it was a Jeep (with a capital "J"). If Bucky were around, he'd back me up here. I remember I'd get 2-cents for a coke bottle, but the BIG money maker was a glass, 1-gallon jug. The old guy at Colonial Town Hardware would give us 5-cents apiece for those. He'd clean 'em up and put bulk turpentine in 'em to sell by the gallon. I remember one time in my early coke bottle rummaging days, I discovered the "Little Store" (that's what we called it, just a small mom & pop store around the corner) had a huge pile of coke bottles behind the store. I know I was young, because we moved away from there when I was 6 or 7. Anyway, when I'd take my bottles in to collect my cash, they'd put the turned in bottles in a small storage area behind the store. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! What could be easier and less walking? I'd walk in the front door, turn in my bottles, then use the money to buy a Popsickle and/or a Coke (either was a nickel), or maybe some candy. I guess they finally got suspicious when I'd pig out on my goodies, leave the store and walk back in 5-mins later with another load of bottles! Oh well, it put an end to my early criminal career, although I was honestly too young to realize I was doing anything wrong.

I can totally relate to this part of P-hole's post:

Our parents pretty much turned us loose on the world at that age.

I'd leave the house in the morning and come back in time for supper. It was a different world back then.

[Penguin]

Hehe.... I was too far out in the sticks to get many soda bottles. Used beer cans lying in the ditch on Sunday mornings but that was about it.

Bunch of citified dudes.

Will

[Thumper]

Whipper-snapper. Beer cans weren’t worth anything when I was collecting coke bottles. That was still back in the church key days. Collecting beer cans didn’t come into vogue until the aluminum can and tab top days. I had a real job by then.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Beer cans when we were kids were made out of manly, American steel that actually rusted not aluminum cans that even nancy boys can crush. You could beat someone with a phone and a steel can of Falstaff.
Try that with an iphone and a White Claw. (I’m talking to you Hombre)

BKB

[Bwana]

My buddies and I collected pop bottles also but most of the time we used the money to play the pinball machine located in the backroom of the city cafe. Or at least we did until we learned that if you put a penny on the train track it squashed out to the size of a quarter and USUALLY came out of the return after triggering a credit on the pinball machine.

The penny trick was GREAT until the slugs were found in the coin mechanism. To this day I recall Dad asking me if I knew anything about the slugs and when I told him no, he said I sure hope so and also hope whoever is doing that they cease immediately. Seemed like a great idea to me.

[LJ3]

Beer cans when we were kids were made out of manly, American steel that actually rusted not aluminum cans that even nancy boys can crush. You could beat someone with a phone and a steel can of Falstaff.
Try that with an iphone and a White Claw. (I’m talking to you Hombre)

BKB

Those beer cans also made awesome cannons that would shoot flaming tennis balls as far as you like!