This is for us old duffers.

hoser

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I was going through some old photos of my family when I was growing up. There were a lot of shots of us having picknicks together and that got me thinking about my days up until 1965. Michigan always had a bottle return policy and we would either walk, or ride our bikes down the country roads looking for pop and beer bottles. Now keep in mind these were $.10 each and some days they would really pile up. We would turn them in at a small store down the road from my home and sometimes get up to a couple bucks for them. And that change was ALWAYS silver! And yes we would always turn around and buy pop chips, and candy with that money. It makes me shudder to think how many old coins were used to rot my teeth out. Thats where the old saying comes into play.' Dumb too early, Smart too late"!!:blink::waiting: Oh how I would like to go back to that area and do some hunting. Sad part is most of those places we played are now housing projects or office buildings. For those of you in southern Michigan that would be able to hunt in the Mt. Clemens area let me know and I can direct you to places that look still open on Google maps.
 
Hoser, this reminds me of my father's experience as a bank employee from 1922 to 1948. Imagine handling all those silver AND gold coins down through the years! For many years when the bank would receive newly minted coinage, he would break those rolls and dump them in his teller drawer, to give out to his various customers! But when he found out in 1938 that nickels were changing from buffalo to Jefferson design, he saved a roll of each. After KT had been working at a coin shop in the late 1950s, he gave me those two rolls and said, "See what you can get for these at the coin shop." I brought him back two crisp new $20 bills, and he was flabbergasted! To think he had not saved a roll of every denomination every year it came out....He would have been a millionaire! Of course, back then money was hard to get....he raised his family....my mom and my two brothers on $75 a month!
 
I'm having a tough time digesting you got a dime a bottle on returns up until 1965.
 
In Michigan you currently get 10cents for bottles and cans.
Back in the 1950s it was 2cents for the bottles.
But a candy bar was only a nickel back then.
That's why I posted my comment. Because the OP said he got 10c for each bottle in the 50s.
 
Back in the 1950's there was a two cent deposit on the small soda bottles and a five cent deposit on the quart size. Quart milk bottles were worth seven cents each. We kids would round up as many as we could, putting them in the baskets we had on our bikes. Whatever we had we'd cash in and buy candy, soda, chips, and even comic books. There was a little mom and pop store that we always went to, and the old man always let us hang around in the store while we were enjoying our soda and candy bars.
One day, a friend of mine hatched an idea as to how we could increase our bottle redemption money.......there was a small supermarket that stored all their bottle returns outside in back of the store.....unattended ! All we had to do was ride our bikes around back and if no one was there, we'd quickly ride up to the bottle pile and grab some of the bottles and put them in our bike baskets. Empties were always in those cardboard "6 pack" cartons so it was easy to grab 24 empties which fit perfectly in the basket and off we'd go down the road to the store to cash them in. We'd "hit" the empty bottle "gold mine" every so often to the point that the old man at the store was getting suspicious as to where we got so many empties. We concocted a story that I'm sure he didn't believe but nothing ever happened. I guess he didn't really care how we got all those empties because we were spending the money we got for them at his store. The 1950's......those were the days !
 
Back in the 1950's there was a two cent deposit on the small soda bottles and a five cent deposit on the quart size. Quart milk bottles were worth seven cents each. We kids would round up as many as we could, putting them in the baskets we had on our bikes. Whatever we had we'd cash in and buy candy, soda, chips, and even comic books. There was a little mom and pop store that we always went to, and the old man always let us hang around in the store while we were enjoying our soda and candy bars.
One day, a friend of mine hatched an idea as to how we could increase our bottle redemption money.......there was a small supermarket that stored all their bottle returns outside in back of the store.....unattended ! All we had to do was ride our bikes around back and if no one was there, we'd quickly ride up to the bottle pile and grab some of the bottles and put them in our bike baskets. Empties were always in those cardboard "6 pack" cartons so it was easy to grab 24 empties which fit perfectly in the basket and off we'd go down the road to the store to cash them in. We'd "hit" the empty bottle "gold mine" every so often to the point that the old man at the store was getting suspicious as to where we got so many empties. We concocted a story that I'm sure he didn't believe but nothing ever happened. I guess he didn't really care how we got all those empties because we were spending the money we got for them at his store. The 1950's......those were the days !
Very similar story. 2 blocks from my house was a liquor store that stored the bottles out back in chained fence area. My sister and I would pull the smaller bottles through the holes. Only 5 or 10 at a time because it was alot of work. Go back in and buy candy. After a couple months the guy figured out what we were doing and stacked the cases differently so we couldn't pull them out. Lol
 
Remembering the late 1970’s, I received my driver’s license at 16. Back then we were long on time but short on cash, so a few of us would drive out then park on a country road and start picking up ditch side Michigan ten-centers. Gas was about 60-70 cents a gallon so within an hour or two we found enough cans/bottles to cash in and fill the gas tank. Funny thing is, now I’m 60 and retired so I walk 2-3 miles every other day. I take a plastic bag with me and in a week I can fill half a 40-gallon trash bag. Getting paid to walk, bonus!
 
Remembering the late 1970’s, I received my driver’s license at 16. Back then we were long on time but short on cash, so a few of us would drive out then park on a country road and start picking up ditch side Michigan ten-centers. Gas was about 60-70 cents a gallon so within an hour or two we found enough cans/bottles to cash in and fill the gas tank. Funny thing is, now I’m 60 and retired so I walk 2-3 miles every other day. I take a plastic bag with me and in a week I can fill half a 40-gallon trash bag. Getting paid to walk, bonus!
I walk a couple of miles a day, five times a week and used to walk on the road I live on. Along the way I'd pick up a lot of empties and put them in a plastic bag. The problem was that I live on a country road and cars zip along way too fast, so I eventually started walking on a walking path in the park, eliminating any chance of picking up empties while I walk.
 
Remembering the late 1970’s, I received my driver’s license at 16. Back then we were long on time but short on cash, so a few of us would drive out then park on a country road and start picking up ditch side Michigan ten-centers. Gas was about 60-70 cents a gallon so within an hour or two we found enough cans/bottles to cash in and fill the gas tank. Funny thing is, now I’m 60 and retired so I walk 2-3 miles every other day. I take a plastic bag with me and in a week I can fill half a 40-gallon trash bag. Getting paid to walk, bonus!
Too funny, When we were kids we would hop the fence and take the long neck beer bottles in the case and turn it in. Bottles I think were five cents and the wire bound case was like thirty five cents. That is until we got caught ...:shock:
 
Around here (Northern VA), we had a hard time scrounging up deposit bottles we could cash in. I think this may have been around the time that "No deposit no return" bottles were common. Worthless beer bottles, thrown from cars, were common. Beer bottles had no deposit to collect. I think I was told it had to do with who could and could not dictate deposits on beer bottles in VA.

--Tom
 
I'm having a hard time just digesting his post :lol: I guess when you get old, you think about such things... :yes:
This is what happens when you retire and have time to think about what MIGHT have been! And this is why my father worked until he passed at age 81. Sometimes things are hpjust right there in front of you and you never see their potential! Of course, my father was a normal and successful business man, and was never bitten by the collecting bug.
 
I was going through some old photos of my family when I was growing up. There were a lot of shots of us having picknicks together and that got me thinking about my days up until 1965. Michigan always had a bottle return policy and we would either walk, or ride our bikes down the country roads looking for pop and beer bottles. Now keep in mind these were $.10 each and some days they would really pile up. We would turn them in at a small store down the road from my home and sometimes get up to a couple bucks for them. And that change was ALWAYS silver! And yes we would always turn around and buy pop chips, and candy with that money. It makes me shudder to think how many old coins were used to rot my teeth out. Thats where the old saying comes into play.' Dumb too early, Smart too late"!!:blink::waiting: Oh how I would like to go back to that area and do some hunting. Sad part is most of those places we played are now housing projects or office buildings. For those of you in southern Michigan that would be able to hunt in the Mt. Clemens area let me know and I can direct you to places that look still open on Google maps.
Blast from the past Hoser:neat: As kids in the 60s we had an apartment complex behind the street me and my friends lived on. We would knock on doors and ask people if they had any pop bottles they didn't want. Being they had a deposit on them people wouldn't throw them away but often they either forgot to return them or were just too lazy. Consequently they would stack up under their kitchen tables and were only too happy to get rid of them when we came knocking. 12 cents for a case 12oz. bottles and 5 cents for a quart bottle. We didn't have bikes, we would just load as many as we could in our hands and under our arms and cart them off 1/2 a mile or so to the neighborhood store. Zero Bar 6 cents and a box of Jawbreakers was 5. This was a good source of income for poor kids and always kept a little change in our pockets. Early Sunday mornings 4 a.m. we would help with the Bulldog deliveries of the Sunday paper. An older kid had a large route and would pay us to help him. I think he gave us 2 bucks a piece. The real treat was the next Saturday he would take us to a Pizza parlor, there were very few back then and for every 5 Bulldogs you could carry over the first 10 he would buy you a slice of pizza. Doubled over and staring at my feet my skinny ass could carry 28. So I got 3 slices and of course a pop to wash it down. Huh ? the things you remember. These days when I do a yard one of the first places I look is where the paperboy would cut through while collecting. Never fails, always a silver coin maybe a wheat or two. Thanks for the memory. Mark
 
Similar story.....I'm 79 and back in the 50's 55, 56, my one brother Mike who was 5 yrs. older than me used to caddy at two different country clubs....well he and I were into westerns, cowboy movies etc....When we had 10 or 15 dollars in or pockets saved from money caddying, we would go up to The Camp Curtin bank on 6th and McClay sts. Hbg, Pa. and cash in for silver dollars.
Then we would imitate the cowboys slapping a dollar on the table like it was a bar and ask for a whiskey or beer.....
God do I wish I would have just stashed them away for a rainy day....I actually now only have one of them. What a time.
 
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