That hot July day in 1938, we moved---towing a cotton
trailer from Dawson County, Texas to the old house behind
the Magic Steam Laundry, Clovis, N.M at 417 West Grand.
I was four-and-a half...had never been anywhere...and knew
nothing about MONEY. Or what it could do...
And I had never even heard the old saw "Money is the root
of all evil." Money was the least of my worries. That
was to change. My little eyes were soon to be opened.
Now Dad worked hard in that laundry, turning out the
finest starched dress shirts for fifteen cents each, as well
as handling all other kinds of dirty clothes, including from
cafés, motels, and hospitals.
He worked 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.---six days a week.
Dad smoked. cigarettes--- Avalons and Camels. They were
twelve cents a pack.
I know, because there was a little grocery store a block
west of the laundry at the corner of West Grand and
Hinkle. Dad would give me a dime and nickel and say:
"Run to Tom's 'Red-and White' store and get me a pack
of Avalons. You can keep the three cents!"
He had said "run," and I did! For I had learned that Tom
had a whole counter full of one cent candies and jars
full on top---to boot.
(It's strange, I know for the younger generation to grasp
the fact that a company could manufacture a piece of
candy, wrap it, ship it, wholesale and retail it---and make
a profit... at one cent per piece.)
Oh, but those were hard times. Men worked for a dollar
a day.
Anyway, what a penny could buy and do for a boy's
happiness! And I had three!
Today it's hard to remember all the choices. There were
jaw breakers, penny suckers, tiny Tootsie Rolls, and Fleer's
Double Bubble Gum, with "funnies." Tiny funnies...
You could even get teensy Baby Ruths, Hershey's Kisses,
Bit 'o Honeys, Snickers, little O Henrys...all one-biter bars
like they now sell for Halloween handouts.
Of course you could get these same candy bars---much
bigger--- for a nickel.
We bought "liquish"pieces for a cent, as well as
those fascinating little miniature wax bottles full of a
Koolade-type swallow...then you chewed the wax bottle.
O it is sad---you who came along later in time in the
good old USA---you missed a certain innocence that
prevailed in those times. We had no TV's but "radioed"
and used our imaginations to picture stories.
We'd never even conceived of an iPad, a smart phone,
a phone camera, texting, tweeting, or computer games.
The main event-of-the-week in our lives was likely
the Saturday afternoon double feature, serial, and
cartoon at the Lyceum Theater. With popcorn it
cost us fifteen of those beloved Lincoln pennies.
There were in those days in the land what were called
"FIVE AND TEN CENT STORES." It's true. Clovis had
two---one almost next door to the Lyceum...and of
course the biggie---and our favorite---WOOLWORTH'S
at the SE corner of Fourth and Main.
With those marvelous big red letters going clear around
the front of the store onto Fourth, that store was what
one might call "the Beauty Mark of Main Street!"
After the double feature at the Lyceum on those Saturday
afternoons, we'd "shop" at many of the stores and wind
up at Woolworth's getting their famous Ham Salad
Sandwich for 20 cents over in the deli on the south side
of the store.
I haven't even mentioned the candy store across the
street from La Casita where the kids would congregate
about 12:45 p.m., after lunch at home or brown bagging---
Kids would flock into that store, some without pennies--
there just to watch and salivate---and others, more lucky,
would buy all manner of penny candies---which had to
be eaten quickly before the bell at 12:56 p.m.
There were machines all over town in those times...wanting
your pennies. You could buy colored chewing gum balls
for a cent...drop a penny in and weigh...or even get a little
"read-your-fortune" card, which came out through a slot!
You readers can probably supply stories re: candies and
uses for penny's that I have been unable to recall.
I hope that someday, some "bright" lawmaker doesn't come
up with idea "Oh look, I've determined we can save a billion
$ a year by doing away with pennies...copper is expensive."
We would lose a dear, important piece of Americana,
never to be recovered...and the politicians would give our
billion dollars away to some country they visited while
on vacation.
....never to be paid back...and our pennies would be gone.
***********************************
THE LINCOLN PENNY...A BRIEF HISTORY
***********************************
August 2, 1909 was a big important day in the history of
the USA, for on that day, in a simpler, more innocent time,
Americans stood in lines at banks all over the nation to
obtain handfuls of the new Lincoln Penny, with the image
of "wheat" on the reverse.
Twenty-seven million of the new coins were struck and the
penny's popularity stemmed from people's love of Abe, and
also the fact that it was the first US coin to bear a human
face.
"LIBERTY" had up to that time, appeared on most coins.
The image of Lincoln was created by Victor David Brenner,
who had been recommended by President Theodore
Roosevelt, who had seen a previous work on Lincoln by
Brenner.
For over a hundred years the penny has kept Lincoln on
the obverse side of the penny, but the Wheat reverse was
replaced in 1959 by the Lincoln Memorial.
A third reverse-- the Lincoln Shield was substituted in 2010.
*****************
By MIL
18 January 2017
Credit LCC for coin photos.
