2 cent return on pop bottles 25 cents on a glass gallon milk jug circa 1957, thars gold in dim hills A bicycle ride to the local mom and pop store and ask for soup bones for the dog. Grandmother always made soup first then gave them to the dog. The candy man who would pass on foot everyday handing out candy to all the kids on the block. He was an innocent old man who just enjoyed making us happy. Birthday Cakes that had coins inside..... yes they did do that and to get a quarter was a big surprise.
- My first camera--Kodak "Instamatic" with the revolving flashcube thing. - Toys in the cereal box and dishtowels or drinking glasses in boxes of detergent - Green Stamps - My white leather drum and bugle corps boots with the taps on them. They made lots of cool noise in the halls when changing classes on game day. - Giant mum corsages with glitter words on the ribbons for Homecoming - Yardley of London - 15 cent burgers at Burger Chef - Getting a "hickey"
13-cents for a pack of cigarettes at Super America. 13-cents per gallon of gas at a gas station in Arizona during a gas war. 13-cent hamburgers at Chips.
Getting tired of new Christmas toys and dragging neglected ones down from the attic trying to refresh the high.
Playing tag or hide and seek in the dark Catching lightening bugs Playing Andy Andy Over Cake walks Mini skirts GoGo boots Halter tops
Transistor Radios - I was known as the transistor sister in high school. Garage Bands - I played in several. Guys in Speedos - ahem ahem. Thinking of our former resident beefcake, Frank. My VW Camper Van - Nothing like having a mini home on the beach. Windsurfing and Beach Volleyball - Nothing like sand, waves, water, and wine while clad in a minimal coverage bikini. Micro Skirts - I still have a couple of mini skirts I wear around the house so I can't reminisce about that hemline, I must go shorter. High Heels - Both pumps and boots. Nothing like 3 to 4" heels to put a little wiggle in the walk. Guys used to write songs about the sashaying female booty. 19 cents a gallon leaded gas at the station built on a uranium dump in Colorado. It was a gravel lot so running over your tank was no biggie. Caps - Nothing like being the champion cap popper. One kid pulled a roll of caps over the horn of an anvil, while the other hit at the black powder dots with a hammer. 10 cents for a 10 oz Nehi soda pop in Colorado and Texas and 50 cents at the pop machine in Fairbanks, Alaska 1960. That summer exhausted my piggybank. I had over $200 in it. I had to limit my PayDay candy bars and Nehi grape sodas to one a day. I rarely ate candy or drank sodas at home, but I was allowed to live large while on vacation in Alaska.
Do you remember the green glassware in the Oat Meal boxes, those boxes were round at the time and plenty of room to put cups in the box.
Small Cokes were a still a nickel when I was young, in the small bottles. In Oklahoma City my Brother and I would go to church downtown OKC and they had one of those pop machines in the lobby that the drink fell to the bottom in a long rectangular tray. My Brother was 5 years younger than myself so I would get him to stick his hand up inside the machine and he could pull out the sodas with no problem. Preacher caught us one Sunday and that ended our life of crime.
Did you know that Coke was a nickel from 1886 to 1959 and was raised to a dime in 1960? I remember going into the local feed and general store with my dad at age 10 and was shocked when the old rounded machine was replaced with a modern one with 10 cents in big letters. I proclaimed it was robbery and then raised the price of my eggs from 25 cents to 35 cents a dozen. The owners didn't blink an eye and just raised their price to 50 cents. Four of my teachers paid me 50 cents a dozen for extra large eggs if I brought them to school.