by Bruce McDaniel

Created on: May 27, 2009   Last Updated: March 21, 2011

There are so many things this writer recalls about childhood. Yes,very much it is missed. Walking along the railroad tracks looking for glass soda bottles without a care in the world. No thoughts of the trains or anything else for that matter. You see there were three cent refunds on every bottle taken back to the store. That was nationwide so who does not remember that? The excitement of walking into my Uncle's little store was overwhelming. Finding 10 bottles was a gold mine to a 6 year old.

Bubblegum was 3 double -bubble for a penny, a cold 16 ounce bottle of soda was 15 cents, Little Debbie cakes were a nickel and a bag of chips was the same. So let's see for thirty cents I got a cake, a16 ounce soda, one bag of Fritos , 12 pieces of bubblegum and one penny tax. That was worth the hunt for all the bottles. On a real good day 15 or 20 bottles could be found.

Looking in the woods was a little boys way of exploring. Fancy toys were not around so playing in the woods was the pastime. What a reward for a day of out playing around, finding 10 15 bottles to take to the store. You see we would be out exploring and when we found a bottle we had a place to put them til the end of the day.

No problem if one of the buddies found none we all shared with them anyway. That is something I really miss is the way kids shared with one another. That is rare in today's world. Things got even better when we finally got a bycicle. One or two of us would have a basket on the bike to put the bottles. We went went out everyday just to look for bottles and go get candy.

There were times when we would rake leaves or cut grass just for the empty pop bottles at someone's house. That was usually a relative. Parents used to have the kids go to the store and their payment was giving up two or three pop bottles for candy to be gotten.

The only sad part was when after finding all those bottles, per chance some were dropped and broken on the way to the store. So looking back on childhood and missing it. That is an understatement! Most people look back and miss the good things and wish that life was still that simple. Even so much as walking down the street and waving at someone. Back then they would wave back with a smile. Nowadays they wonder why you are waving much less looking their direction. It is okay though as I have a memory of a great childhood that I miss a lot. Because now there is no such thing as a 16 ounce bottle of soda, Little Debbie cakes are $.89, potato chips over a dollar and bubble gum is more than a quarter.

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