Originally Posted By: Salmo g.
In my day, a big flat wad of pink bubble gum came with every pack of baseball cards. And a pack cost a nickel, which was big money - obtained by working stiff kids by returning two empty regular pop bottles at 3 cents each, or one quart pop bottle for 6 cents. I made a lot of money for that time as a kid by picking up and returning beer and pop bottles to grocery stores. Hard to believe now in this throw everything away society that was actually a real thing to do then.


Same here, but with a little inflation. It was 5 cents for a 10 or 12 oz pop bottle, 10 cents for a pint or quart, don't recall. But the jackpot was 20 cents for an empty jug of Dad's or Hires root beer.

A friend and I earned 25 bucks one summer doing that and were about to buy a neighbor's home made mini bike with it. Until our parents reneged on the mini bike agreement. They never thought we could earn that much on pop bottles and when we did, no mini bike. Still pissed at them about that. wink