C is for Collecting Bottles for Candy

Tootsie rolls. Tootsie pops. Big Hunk. Almond Joy. Bit of Honey. Root beer barrels. And, M&Ms. I was at the store nearly every day, pointing at one, two, and, sometimes, three candies in the glass display, which helped turn me into a roly-poly candy girl. I was barely tall enough to put my coins on the wooden counter.

At the age of five, I walked by myself to Dunneville Store, which we happened to live behind. Back then in the late 50s, it was no big deal for a little girl to walk herself to the store.  I always seemed to have a penny or a nickel to buy candy on my own. I may have found coins on the ground or in the cracks of the couches. A friend once told me about a day she was visiting when I pulled some money out of a cigar box, and we walked to the store and bought a toy tea set. I don't remember this at all. 

Somewhere along the line I learned that I could return empty soda bottles to the store and use the money for candy. We always had a bunch of empties because the Older and Only Bionic Brother and I drank a lot of soda. Root beer was my favorite, followed by orange. But, I had competition from the brother for the empties. So, I always had my eyes open for bottles whenever I wandered around outside.  It paid off because I kept finding a bottle here or there, usually behind the store.

One day I really scored and found a bunch of loose bottles in a receptacle behind the store. In a paper bag, too. I walked around to the store's entrance hugging the bag. Missus and Mister Storekeeper were both behind the counter. One of them took the bag from me.

"That's a lot of bottles," Mister Storekeeper said. "Where did you find them?"

"Behind the store," I said.

The Mister and Missus laughed. I bought a lot of candy that day.

Unfortunately, after that day, I didn't find any more bottles behind the store.

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