We've Gotten TRASHY !!
No Deposit-No Return
A lot of people have talked about WHEN AMERICA STARTED GOIN TO HELL IN THE FAST LANE, and have made a lot of thoughtful attempts at puttin a timeline on it..
Some say Viet Nam was the turnin point.. Some say the 80's was the drop-off point..
I say it was the advent of the throw away container.. Soda bottles to be precise !!
When I was growin up my Saturday started with gettin with a buddy and the hunt began for Pop bottles to take to the store and collect the return deposit on em and then see how much we had made and then plan our day..
We usually started by headin to the 5 and Dime store downtown to raid the candy bins and get a sack of whatever our taste for candy was that day, whether it was the chocolate covered peanuts or the goowy-chewy coconut triple flavor chunks..
Then with our sack of candy in hand we would go to the White's Auto store and drool over the new bikes and the new BB guns and and racks of new rifles on the wall while we munched our candy and shared it with the store owner and his wife so they would be nice and let us sit on the bikes and fondle the BB guns and he would show us the new .22s and shotguns that had come in but we didnt get to hold em..
After a quick circle by the theater to see what the show was that Saturday and decide if we wanted to see it, we would head to the 7-11 store and go over the rack of balsa wood gliders and kites and sling shots.. If our bottle collectin had been good we would get us a toy to play with but we would usually skip the toys and head by the home turf and check-in and then head to Mrs. Mamie's Cafe(where all the black folks still got served in the back) and get one of her big greasy hamburgers and fries and a pop for a WHOLE DOLLAR..
After that we would go to the County Courthouse across the street and slide down the stair bannisters and look at the WANTED posters stapled on the wall by the Sheriff's Office and talk to my uncle Mervin a minute who was the custodian..
Then it was time to make a trip to the airport(which was nothin more than a dirt strip) and either watch the crop dusters come and go or if they wadnt flyin we would watch the cycle riders race up and down the runway or the dirt bikes jump the banks on the side.. They would even take us for a THRILL RIDE sometimes.. And one of the airport's neighbors had a bunch of gas powered model planes that he would build himself fly around out there too.. But one way or another the airport was always a place of excitement and it was FREE..
If we still had money left or the parents wanted to get rid of us bad enuff to pay our way and it was real hot or the weather was bad we would get a ride to the show and catch a movie, or go to the Drug Store and get one of the best strawberry malts I have ever smacked a lip on..
But when the no deposit-no return bottles came out it almost ruined me and my buddy's world.. He had to start helpin his dad at their store on Saturday to get his spendin money and I went to work for a used car lot washin cars to get mine.. We worked most of the day so our Fun Time was gone anyway..
But those pop bottles helped us learn to budget our money and plan our activities and work as a team and deal with other people on a financial basis.. When they started to disappear is when I thank our society as a whole began to become a Throw-Away culture.. Even America's babies and marriage became no deposit-no return !!
A whole American subculture(the homeless) learned that they could live off what the rest of us threw away.. Thus was born the Dumpster Divers and the Bag Ladies..
Whole camps sprang up of Nam Vets that hated their fellow citizens almost as much as they did the Gooks chose not to be a part of the society that spit and threw shit on em and called em evil names when they came home.. They too were no deposit-no return..
From the simple beginnin of the throw away bottle we have evolved to the point of a throw away Gubmint and Country.. Not zactly what I would call progress !!
A lot of people have talked about WHEN AMERICA STARTED GOIN TO HELL IN THE FAST LANE, and have made a lot of thoughtful attempts at puttin a timeline on it..
Some say Viet Nam was the turnin point.. Some say the 80's was the drop-off point..
I say it was the advent of the throw away container.. Soda bottles to be precise !!
When I was growin up my Saturday started with gettin with a buddy and the hunt began for Pop bottles to take to the store and collect the return deposit on em and then see how much we had made and then plan our day..
We usually started by headin to the 5 and Dime store downtown to raid the candy bins and get a sack of whatever our taste for candy was that day, whether it was the chocolate covered peanuts or the goowy-chewy coconut triple flavor chunks..
Then with our sack of candy in hand we would go to the White's Auto store and drool over the new bikes and the new BB guns and and racks of new rifles on the wall while we munched our candy and shared it with the store owner and his wife so they would be nice and let us sit on the bikes and fondle the BB guns and he would show us the new .22s and shotguns that had come in but we didnt get to hold em..
After a quick circle by the theater to see what the show was that Saturday and decide if we wanted to see it, we would head to the 7-11 store and go over the rack of balsa wood gliders and kites and sling shots.. If our bottle collectin had been good we would get us a toy to play with but we would usually skip the toys and head by the home turf and check-in and then head to Mrs. Mamie's Cafe(where all the black folks still got served in the back) and get one of her big greasy hamburgers and fries and a pop for a WHOLE DOLLAR..
After that we would go to the County Courthouse across the street and slide down the stair bannisters and look at the WANTED posters stapled on the wall by the Sheriff's Office and talk to my uncle Mervin a minute who was the custodian..
Then it was time to make a trip to the airport(which was nothin more than a dirt strip) and either watch the crop dusters come and go or if they wadnt flyin we would watch the cycle riders race up and down the runway or the dirt bikes jump the banks on the side.. They would even take us for a THRILL RIDE sometimes.. And one of the airport's neighbors had a bunch of gas powered model planes that he would build himself fly around out there too.. But one way or another the airport was always a place of excitement and it was FREE..
If we still had money left or the parents wanted to get rid of us bad enuff to pay our way and it was real hot or the weather was bad we would get a ride to the show and catch a movie, or go to the Drug Store and get one of the best strawberry malts I have ever smacked a lip on..
But when the no deposit-no return bottles came out it almost ruined me and my buddy's world.. He had to start helpin his dad at their store on Saturday to get his spendin money and I went to work for a used car lot washin cars to get mine.. We worked most of the day so our Fun Time was gone anyway..
But those pop bottles helped us learn to budget our money and plan our activities and work as a team and deal with other people on a financial basis.. When they started to disappear is when I thank our society as a whole began to become a Throw-Away culture.. Even America's babies and marriage became no deposit-no return !!
A whole American subculture(the homeless) learned that they could live off what the rest of us threw away.. Thus was born the Dumpster Divers and the Bag Ladies..
Whole camps sprang up of Nam Vets that hated their fellow citizens almost as much as they did the Gooks chose not to be a part of the society that spit and threw shit on em and called em evil names when they came home.. They too were no deposit-no return..
From the simple beginnin of the throw away bottle we have evolved to the point of a throw away Gubmint and Country.. Not zactly what I would call progress !!
posted by Wild Bill at 1:04 PM
6 Comments:
That sure brings back a lot of memories. The throw away bottles might have been a bad thing, but I think where America starting sliding downhill is when we pulled out of Viet Nam and allowed the scum that protested our troops return to get by with it. We have never been the same America since. And I still don't like that traitor jane fonda.
Seems like I remember Hanoi Jane in one of those "I'd like to give the world a Coke" commercials..
The Throw Away culture was already in full swing by the time the Nam Vets started comin home to an ungrateful nation, and they were the target of the ones promotin the disposable society..
I remember the commercial of the Indian standin on the side of the road with a tear in his eye when somebody drove by and threw trash at his feet !! I dont remember what year that was tho..
That was a Public Service Announcement by the Gubmint, and we all know how slow they are to act, but I thank it was around 1970 then..
vietnam was but the beginnings of our problems.
i heard a statistic which said that we ignored what hitler was up to (until we took over) for TWELVE years. we were paid back in full with approximately the same amount of time in vietnam.
now iraq.
we must all be about the same age, because i, too, remember being so excited to find five or six of those bottles by the side of the road in a ditch.
i'd take my little brother and sister to the country market about a mile away (i was six) and we'd spend to our heart's delight.
our daughter had seven friends over for her birthday party last night and raked in over a hundred bucks PLUS spendy gifts from such places as cabelas!
i don't think i EVER saw a hundred bucks until after i cashed my husband's check way back in the early seventies!
we're a gone society - we worship the creation rather than the creator.
God help u.s. all.
the commercial of the indian by the side of the road was in '69-'70. yeah, it was that long ago.
Wild Bill said:
"I remember the commercial of the Indian standin on the side of the road with a tear in his eye when somebody drove by and threw trash at his feet !!"
Ol' "Iron Eyes Cody"!
Only problem was he was an Italian.
LOL
Being about a quarter Cherokee myself and with a family that acted ashamed of it; I remember a family vacation in 1964 through Cherokee NC. Aluminum pull tabs were just starting to be a real litter problem but they were scattered here and there until the advent of the attached pull tab.
What struck me about that trip was all the fake Cherokee crap that was made in Japan. Every little Indian kiosk was filled with the crap!
Rubber tomahawks, arrows with rubber arrow heads, fake peace pipes and tom toms.
I think my rather dense brother bought a rubber tomahawk not realizing that we were at least as authentic as those cigar store Indians.
I felt ashamed. Then I grew up.
You blame the disappearance of the pop bottle and I blame the arrival of the metal soft drink can.
Hell, we have throw away babies, spouses, allies today.
I agree with almtnman. I think with the advent of the hippies, birth control, drug use, womens lib - I'd love to stomp Gloria Steinham's ugly ass for it - getting away from the traditional family and rewarding sluts for not keeping their legs crossed - hell, the list can go on and on. Most importantly, getting away from a faith in God and what is right.
Soda cans have value today, WB!! At least in California we pay a pretty high CRV tax. Think it's ten cents or something a can.
cheryl - it takes 24 cans to make a pound...
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