BY KYLE LOVERN

Many kids today have money and a steady allowance. They never have to worry about buying things, and that’s OK.

But back in the 1960s, we would turn in reusable pop bottles for money. If you lived near a grocery store in most communities, you could turn in those glass bottles for change. By today’s standards that would not be much, but for a youngster wanting a pop and candy bar, it was awesome.

Usually you bought a carton of pop, whether Coke, Pepsi, 7-Up, Dr Pepper, Frostie Root Beer, RC or my favorite – strawberry Nehi. The Nehi brand had grape, orange and strawberry, the favorite of many kids during that era.

Many families kept the bottles for a while until they got a few. They were usually stored in a building, basement or shed. Some people would gather discarded reusable bottles along the roadways in a box until they had enough to turn in for cash.

If my memory serves me correctly, they only brought about three cents each. They may have gone up to a nickel a few years later. But stores would buy them back to resell them to the distributors.

There were always at least a couple of stores in Nolan, sometimes three. Slone’s Grocery was my usual place of business to turn in my used bottles. There was also Marcum Grocery, and both were near the old Toll Bridge in Nolan.

I know youngsters reading this wouldn’t think that is a lot of money, but in those days we could buy a lot for a few cents. A bottle of pop was a mere dime, a candy bar a nickel and the same for a bag of chips. I think both of those went up to 10 cents as “inflation” hit. You could buy a great hot dog at Fannin’s Restaurant for a quarter. So you see, if you had enough bottles, you could treat yourself pretty well during that period.

You might want to stop by Curry’s Restaurant to play some pinball or a game of pool. But your money wouldn’t last long if you did that, and getting an ice-cold bottle of pop out of the cooler at the local general store was a treat. Picking a candy bar behind the glass counter was also fun.

I would even save my money sometimes and when the family went to “town,” which was Williamson, I would purchase a couple of comic books like Batman or Superman. (I sure wish I still had those; some are probably worth a lot of money.)

Then I bought baseball cards, which was another way to spend my money. I can recall when they were only 5 cents a pack. Imagine what an investment that would be if you held onto those cards and kept them in good shape. Some older cards of star players are worth a lot of money, although the price fluctuates on that kind of collecting. I know the price for cards these days is a lot more than back in the good old days.

In Williamson you had the old Coca-Cola plant owned by the Cantees family, Mingo Bottling operated by the Gentile family and the Royal Crown (RC) plant in West Williamson. They actually had bottling plants where the soda pop was made right here in our town. They had big machines where the old and dirty bottles were loaded onto a washer.

Then they went through an assembly line where the syrup was added, carbonated water was added, then resealed with a bottle cap.

I worked one summer at the Coke plant on Second Avenue, near the Sycamore Inn on the brick street. It was hard work, especially for a greenhorn like me. I was responsible for loading the empty bottles onto the nonstop washing machine structure. I also got a break where I would go to the other end and watch the clean bottles coming out after they had been washed and disinfected with hot water. You had to watch for chipped bottles or some that had not gotten clean and take them off the assembly line.

I remember taking a fresh Coke right off the loud, rattling assembly line and taking a drink in that old warehouse building. It was hot in the summer, so the drink could help quench a parched mouth and throat.

You only made minimum wage, which wasn’t very much at that time. I think it was only about $2 an hour in the early ‘70s. Of course things didn’t cost as much, but for the hard work you did that wasn’t very much.

Reusable bottles went away and were replaced by aluminum cans and plastic bottles. If you just look along the roadways, you’ll see plenty of those. Unfortunately those disposable containers are not good for the environment and give the litterbugs something to toss out of their car windows.

Maybe it would be good to go back to the reusable glass bottles!

Now pop bottles are considered antiques and are collectibles. Some of the older and more rare bottles are worth some money.

Times were more innocent back in the 1960s and early 1970s. I miss those days and the simple pleasures of opening a cold bottle of Nehi or 6-ounce Coke and eating a chocolate bar.

Now they are just fond memories of many of us baby boomers who like to reminisce.

(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist for the Mountain Citizen.)