Coke Bottles, Slurpees, and Baseball Cards

Remember when we bought Cokes in a bottle and paid a deposit on every bottle we bought?  Coke bottles were a great source of income for a 9-year old.  Two Coke bottles were worth 10 cents, just enough for a pack of baseball cards.  Three more Coke bottles would buy a Slurpee at 7 Eleven, and you would get a nickel back in change. 

My friend Larry turned me onto the idea of collecting Coke bottles (here in the South we refer to every carbonated beverage as Coke).  We would walk along Winchester Road and look for bottles that had been thrown into the grass.  My friend Karen would help me look for bottles near the apartments behind the church while we waited for my mon and her parents to finish choir practice.  Sometimes I would have a dozen bottles in my bicycle basket as I headed down Winchester Road to the 7 Eleven, ready for some serious baseball card purchases and a whatever flavor Slurpee was offered (Sweet Thing was my favorite).

I still have my baseball card collection from the late 60’s and early 70’s.  Sometimes I’ll happen to see them in the closet, and I’ll pull them out are reminisce about those days.  Our kids have really missed out on something special since the Coke bottle was replaced with aluminum cans and plastic bottles, and the price of a pack of baseball cards went through the roof.  I feel like an old-timer now that I can tell the story of “back in the day”.  But we had some great times hunting for bottles and buying Slurpees and baseball cards!