Page 43 - April 2017 BNP ALL
P. 43
Published by www.EPlusPromotes.com www.TheCatoctinBanner.com The Catoctin Banner Newspaper April 2017 Page 43
Up On Shiny Penny
Windy Ridge
by Linda E Calhoun
by Valerie O’Rourke Kitts
The time growing up in mid 50’s the pop (soda) was
Up on Windy Ridge I live dispensed in bottles. All along the back roads the pop bottles
where the big sky kicks up its feet, were lying in ditches as people threw them from car windows. When I became old
and the trees clap and sway in sync. enough to realize that when you took back a bottle to any store that sold them,
you would receive 2 cents for a quart size one and a nickel for two quarts. Me
What joy the Sun knows, dipping low! with my bike, which had a basket on the front, would ask my friends next door if
What mournful song along Windy Ridge blows? they wanted to go look for bottles.
What simple peace before repose. Out of the three, only two would go with me. I don’t remember my sister going,
but I did tell her if you don’t go and help get bottles, then you don’t get any of the
Old Man Moon candy! We started down the road on the quest to find the biggest ones for they
were worth more money, but always picked up the quart size, too!
by Francis Smith By the time we got to the candy store, our baskets were full of bottles. Always
upon entering the candy store, my mind was on full throttle, adding up what I
Old man Moon could get the most of for what money I received from the bottles.
sends his silver beams Needless to say, we were happy that people threw their bottles out their car
to light each starry night windows; but the lucky part was that we lived a mile down from the high school.
to calm our toilsome plight. The kids who drove the cars they bought from working would go to the gas
He lingers so, it seems station just on the other side of the school; so of course, they bought pop after
to comfort weary folk school a few times a week. After careful calculations, I would end up with a half a
whose daily dues and work paper bag of candy for our efforts. Penny candy, two for a penny, and candy bars
drag their spirit down almost double the size they are now were a nickel. I remember after a pretty good
when courage should abound run of bottles along the road, I bought five Snicker bars! I was in hog heaven,
Look up! Hooray! plus was able to get some penny candy.
at length his gentle rays My Mother’s parents lived thirty minutes from us. They barely had enough
succumb to sunshine days money to live, but sometimes while I was visiting Grama, she would reach into
and we, poor mortals all her pocket book and bring out a few pennies and hand them to us. I remember the
return to work and play first time I saw a new one as Grama gave it to me. I was mesmerized with how
refreshed, awake, alive shiny it was, for I had never seen anything as pretty in my entire life.
alert for duty’s call. To me, it was like having a gold piece. That penny never got spent! It didn’t
matter that I could get two pieces of candy with it; but feeling deep inside I
would never get a brand new penny ever again…it was a keeper. I was never
again given a new penny when turning in the bottles, and that made the penny so
much more special to me.
There were a lot of movies about pirates searching for the treasure and/
or fighting to take the chest of gold from another ship that I watched on black
and white TV. The shiny NEW penny was my treasure that I could call my own.
Growing up with three siblings (I am the second of four), sharing was a must.
Maybe once a month, Daddy would come home with one big bag of Snyder
potato chips and four quart bottles of pop. The flavors were cherry , orange,
grape, and root beer. The pop was four for a dollar.
We were allowed one bowl of chips and one small glass of pop. I think I could
have won first place championship for having the most chips, placed just so the
bowl was the fullest without any falling out. I can see myself sitting in a little
rocking chair covered with red vinyl material, covering the entire chair. My older
brother Lee had a puke green one! Gosh it was ugly, but he owned that chair and
you didn’t dare sit in it or he immediately removed you!
The fascination with shiny pennies, growing up with quart bottles and a bike
that had one speed. The ‘awe’ of a shiny new penny has never left this Grama, for
every night when my husband comes home from work, he empties his pockets of
everything, plus coins, and puts them on the dresser.
Before I go to bed, I pick out his clothes for work, then neatly place them on
the bed in the other bedroom. I look to see what color shirt he wore that day,
and I make sure I pick another color for the next day. THEN I walk over to the
treasure chest to find and claim my golden pennies.
Excited as if I were five again, I pick up the shiny pennies first, check their
dates, and if it is not a 2017, it goes into a plastic jug because we are saving coins.
But I also look for wheat pennies, but that is another story for another time.
As Paul Harvey used to say at the end of his radio broadcast, “and now you
know the rest of the story.” Childhood memories that grow fonder every day. Life
was and will always be good.
Up On Shiny Penny
Windy Ridge
by Linda E Calhoun
by Valerie O’Rourke Kitts
The time growing up in mid 50’s the pop (soda) was
Up on Windy Ridge I live dispensed in bottles. All along the back roads the pop bottles
where the big sky kicks up its feet, were lying in ditches as people threw them from car windows. When I became old
and the trees clap and sway in sync. enough to realize that when you took back a bottle to any store that sold them,
you would receive 2 cents for a quart size one and a nickel for two quarts. Me
What joy the Sun knows, dipping low! with my bike, which had a basket on the front, would ask my friends next door if
What mournful song along Windy Ridge blows? they wanted to go look for bottles.
What simple peace before repose. Out of the three, only two would go with me. I don’t remember my sister going,
but I did tell her if you don’t go and help get bottles, then you don’t get any of the
Old Man Moon candy! We started down the road on the quest to find the biggest ones for they
were worth more money, but always picked up the quart size, too!
by Francis Smith By the time we got to the candy store, our baskets were full of bottles. Always
upon entering the candy store, my mind was on full throttle, adding up what I
Old man Moon could get the most of for what money I received from the bottles.
sends his silver beams Needless to say, we were happy that people threw their bottles out their car
to light each starry night windows; but the lucky part was that we lived a mile down from the high school.
to calm our toilsome plight. The kids who drove the cars they bought from working would go to the gas
He lingers so, it seems station just on the other side of the school; so of course, they bought pop after
to comfort weary folk school a few times a week. After careful calculations, I would end up with a half a
whose daily dues and work paper bag of candy for our efforts. Penny candy, two for a penny, and candy bars
drag their spirit down almost double the size they are now were a nickel. I remember after a pretty good
when courage should abound run of bottles along the road, I bought five Snicker bars! I was in hog heaven,
Look up! Hooray! plus was able to get some penny candy.
at length his gentle rays My Mother’s parents lived thirty minutes from us. They barely had enough
succumb to sunshine days money to live, but sometimes while I was visiting Grama, she would reach into
and we, poor mortals all her pocket book and bring out a few pennies and hand them to us. I remember the
return to work and play first time I saw a new one as Grama gave it to me. I was mesmerized with how
refreshed, awake, alive shiny it was, for I had never seen anything as pretty in my entire life.
alert for duty’s call. To me, it was like having a gold piece. That penny never got spent! It didn’t
matter that I could get two pieces of candy with it; but feeling deep inside I
would never get a brand new penny ever again…it was a keeper. I was never
again given a new penny when turning in the bottles, and that made the penny so
much more special to me.
There were a lot of movies about pirates searching for the treasure and/
or fighting to take the chest of gold from another ship that I watched on black
and white TV. The shiny NEW penny was my treasure that I could call my own.
Growing up with three siblings (I am the second of four), sharing was a must.
Maybe once a month, Daddy would come home with one big bag of Snyder
potato chips and four quart bottles of pop. The flavors were cherry , orange,
grape, and root beer. The pop was four for a dollar.
We were allowed one bowl of chips and one small glass of pop. I think I could
have won first place championship for having the most chips, placed just so the
bowl was the fullest without any falling out. I can see myself sitting in a little
rocking chair covered with red vinyl material, covering the entire chair. My older
brother Lee had a puke green one! Gosh it was ugly, but he owned that chair and
you didn’t dare sit in it or he immediately removed you!
The fascination with shiny pennies, growing up with quart bottles and a bike
that had one speed. The ‘awe’ of a shiny new penny has never left this Grama, for
every night when my husband comes home from work, he empties his pockets of
everything, plus coins, and puts them on the dresser.
Before I go to bed, I pick out his clothes for work, then neatly place them on
the bed in the other bedroom. I look to see what color shirt he wore that day,
and I make sure I pick another color for the next day. THEN I walk over to the
treasure chest to find and claim my golden pennies.
Excited as if I were five again, I pick up the shiny pennies first, check their
dates, and if it is not a 2017, it goes into a plastic jug because we are saving coins.
But I also look for wheat pennies, but that is another story for another time.
As Paul Harvey used to say at the end of his radio broadcast, “and now you
know the rest of the story.” Childhood memories that grow fonder every day. Life
was and will always be good.
