"A Cardboard Hobby: Code for Much Enjoyment" - Time Out #106

Life is full of choices.

A few of those choices begin very early in our childhood.

Some of these early years decisions stay with us all our days on planet earth.

Some vanish almost as soon as we make them; a "lark" of an idea as my dear father, Col. Breedlove used to say long ago.

Growing up in Our Town in the 1950's, I was given a fair amount of individual freedom by my dad to go just about any logical direction I chose. Because of his confidence and trust in my early decision-making process, he was a very different from today's so-called "helicopter", or the more recent term "bulldozer" parent. Yes, very little hovering over me or knocking various obstacles out of my youth path so I could easier find my way with his help. For his wisdom and his form of parenting way back when, I have been forever grateful throughout my life.

Because my brother, C.H., is 13+ years older, and my sister, Beverly, is almost 9 years older, my widower father raised me very similar to an only child in Our Town. Therefore, many times I developed many hobbies to spend my time away from the public school classroom.

One of those that absolutely involved a great deal of my time and interest for my elementary school years and beyond, was collecting sports cards. In fact, if I remember correctly after 60 years, I was almost obsessed in securing loose money change (packs @ 5-cents each), so I could mount my small, 20" Colson bicycle, and roar off to the old Tiger Drug, across the street west of it's current location, T.G. & Y or College Drug, both located on South Knoblock Street where Hideway Pizza and Chris' University Spirit are today, or my all-everything store, McCaffree's Drug @ West 4th Avenue & South Washington Street. I'm sure there were other outlets for these cardboard treasurers scattered about our wonderful community way back in that day, but those previously mentioned were my regular haunts for my Colson bike and me. My economic funds for purchasing these jewels were mostly secured by re-selling empty glass soda bottles @ 2-cents each, either gathering the bottles in a paper box, or more chance of breaking them, by placing the booty in brown grocery sacks. They would then be placed in my bicycle front wire basket. There were absolutely NO plastic bag transport options in those ancient times!

I would usually delay opening the purchased wax packs until I got home, but if a friend(s) was with me during these purchase frenzies, the excitement of the moment was just too much. At those high-anxiety times, we would tear into our wax packs with much vigor and enthusiasm, hoping Lady Luck had shined on us in the form of securing a star player card or a rare common card. If the purchase was multiple wax packs or even a 20-pack box, the flat, hyper-sugary, pink bubble gum entirely filled our youthful jaws, so we resembled young squirrels with bulging mouth pouches.

I vividly remember my dear older friend, Cary, and his sport card purchasing process. Cary would go to Tiger Drug regularly, and usually purchase a box at a time. If I was around the store at the time he arrived, he normally was not excited about chewing all that sticky pink ooze, so would offer the gum to me. I'm sure I had many youthful sugar highs do to Cary's purchasing power.

So, what would happen to these cardboard pictures once they were free from their wax packs and exposed to the real world?

Several things, dear readers, probably most commonly individual trading among our youthful crowd of friends. However, by far the most common end result would be the pseudo-motorcycle effect.

What you ask??

Most young fellows of the day would take their newly-opened cards, and attach them to their bicycle wheels on the metal spokes via wooden clothes pins. They would then roar through their neighborhoods, pretending to be a middle-age teenager piloting a powerful sounding motorcycle, and getting lots of heads to turn and watch. Needless to say, this behavior totally ruined the sports (mostly baseball) cards, and they had to be thrown away. No problem there, however, the gang would simply purchase more wax packs, and the motorcycle sound would quickly return!

Older friend Cary and I did very little of the sound effect game with our cards, and were true young collectors. I did play some with my cards in various games I devised, along with my dear friend, Fred (aka "Twindees"), but, again, little damage was done via the games, other than simply handling the cards. Back then, I knew most of the statistical information printed on each card's non-picture side, almost like I knew my own name. Remember, as I previously said, I was serious about my hobbies.

Fast forward 35+ years to being father for 3 children.

As bride, Debbie, and I parented this trio, our entire young family became totally immersed in collecting sports cards. In fact, for a short time in the early 1990's, we even owned a brick & mortar sports card store on North Main Street in Our Town. The children helped Debbie work in it, and, mostly, it was lots of family fun, and has provided many great memories.

The store was short-lived, however, because the sports card economy turned south, so we closed the doors, and took our cards home.

Fast forward 25 more years to today.

I continue to have most of my old cardboard treasures (remember, NO bicycle spoke endings for me!), collecting sports cards are attempting to make another economic comeback, and I am still a kid at heart.

Many things never change..........