It was the most magnificent and beautiful coin in the world
to me, a little boy aged five, in 1939 !! You might say it was the
most miraculous thing I had ever seen. It had power!
Why if you could just get possession of one, you could buy
all kinds of sweets with it down at the candy store! You could
even get five cent potato chips, Planter's peanuts, and Tom's
four crackers with peanut butter.
Right north of the Clovis State Theater, was a little greasy
spoon that sold hamburgers for five cents....even if they came
with only small meat, smear of mustard, catsup, and small piece
of dill pickle.
The Red-and-White Store, at about 521 West Grand in old Clovis
had all kinds of nickel candy in its display case---Hersheys,
Snickers, Baby Ruths, Black Cows, Paydays, Bit O' Honeys,
O Henrys, Heath bars, packages of red hots or licorice....
Mounds and Almond Joys (with coconut) were TWO nickels
as well as "plumgranites," which were sold only at the little store
across Thornton Street from La Casita School.
A nickel would also buy us a soda pop...and we leaned toward
(at that tender age) BARQ'S BIG ORANGE or their ROOT BEER;
Delaware Punches with grape flavor and no FIZZ--- grapes, limes,
and we rarely tested out those too-strong little 6 1/2 ounce Coca
Colas in the fascinatingly-shaped light green bottles.
As we little kids reached six, seven, eight...Pepsi Cola became a
favorite...they even had a jingle on the radio:
Pepsi Cola hits the spot
Twelve full ounces, that's a lot!
Twice as much for nickel too,
Pepsi Cola is the drink for you...
Nickel, nickel, nickel
Rubi-dot dot ta...!"
We succumbed to advertising, and any time we could put
together TWO nickels we would buy a Pepsi and peanuts...
and what else---pour the little sack of peanuts into the
Pepsi! Its main drawback was that it was TOO much
drink at twelve ounces---for little kids!
As we got older and mowed lawns for a hot hour in the
100 degree summertime, we amassed some change in
our pockets @ fifty cents a lawn...and had a few Mercury
dimes and maybe a Walking Liberty half dollar, along with
our buffaloes, jingling in our pockets, for a movie and
popcorn, or a Gene Autry funny book. Now and then a
ten cent WWII SAVINGS STAMP.
Those were splendid times, though hard on the nation,
and even little boys....but it was a great country, a great
time to come on the planet...and who CAN EVER FORGET
THAT MOST BEAUTIFUL AND LOVED COIN OF ALL---
THE "BUFFALO NICKEL ?" I WON'T....NOT EVER....
*********************
BY MIL
CHRISTMAS SEASON 2015
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