I have two brothers. Both are older than I. One by four years and the other by six. As a consequence I played with neither very much . My sister is only two years my senior so we hung out a bit more. Living three miles from town on a dirt road with few neighbors it was a necessity. Gotta have someone to play with. I remember making mud pies with her and jumping rope. We rode our bikes. I may have been convinced to play with a doll in my time too, but I'm not admitting to that.
Just down the road from our house was a small country store. Mom and Dad would send us there to pick up small items for them. Mary,the owner of the store,knew us children well and was great friends with our parents. It was a typical little corner grocery for the time. The counter was full of penny candy and those big pretzel sticks stood in a jar on top of the counter. Mary would sell us anything we told her Dad wanted. Cigarettes were purchased there and beer as well. Mary would put them in a brown paper sack and admonish us," don't you let anybody see you with that." We always promised we wouldn't and hurried straight home. We would take the shortcut through the woods so as not to be conspicuous.Fooled'em every time.
Well,there was a time when we went down to the store to get a soda. Parked in front of the store was the Coca-Cola truck. The big roll up doors were open on the one side. We could see the delivery man taking a cart load of cokes into the store and Mary there to greet him. It was a warm day and our thirst was great. All those sodas just sitting there in plain sight unattended. The temptation was too great and while one was the lookout ,the other snatched a whole case of those delicious coca-colas and headed for the woods. Carrying that wooden case with four six packs of soda in it wasn't easy but we managed it on sheer adrenaline alone ! We made it to the safety of the wood.
Stopping to rest it occurred to us, we can't take this home Mom will know we didn't buy it and how are we going to explain. Oh man,we didn't think this one through. We decided we would just sit right there in those nice shady woods and enjoy our ill gotten gains. Another problem, no bottle opener. This was back in the days before twist off tops. Eventually we figured out a way to get the top off and take a big swallow of that precious nectar,Coca Cola. Ah,oh it is hot. Sitting in the back of that delivery truck that soda was quite warm. Well,nothing to do about that. It isn't that bad once you get used to it.
We sat there in that little patch of woods and each drank several bottles. Quite proud of ourselves for having pulled off the heist. We got clean away and nobody the wiser. We hadn't stole anything from Mary and surely the Coca Cola company would never miss one little case. As we basked in the glory of it all and justified our actions we both began to feel a little ill. Our stomachs began to protest. Too much warm soda on a hot day.
We stashed the remainder of that case away in the bushes and headed home. We came in and tried to act nonchalant. Our faces must have given us away though because Mom asked us if we were alright. We assured her we were fine.
This was probably about 1960 or thereabouts. The exact details are sketchy now. We never tried that trick again. We would make many trips to that store during our childhood and make other memories. We had to pass Aunt Bettys' house on soak hide road to get there. We would often stop to " just say hello" to her and she would give us candy money.
There was one other incident my partner in crime and I pulled off at the 5&10 cent store. I'll save that tale for another time.
Looking back you can't help but wonder why. Why did you do that stuff ? Most kids do I think. It is a sort of right of passage or something. Testing your nerve or wit,I don't know. After we grew older the crime spree ended. My sister was a great partner to have. She never told anybody. We made a great team.
Just down the road from our house was a small country store. Mom and Dad would send us there to pick up small items for them. Mary,the owner of the store,knew us children well and was great friends with our parents. It was a typical little corner grocery for the time. The counter was full of penny candy and those big pretzel sticks stood in a jar on top of the counter. Mary would sell us anything we told her Dad wanted. Cigarettes were purchased there and beer as well. Mary would put them in a brown paper sack and admonish us," don't you let anybody see you with that." We always promised we wouldn't and hurried straight home. We would take the shortcut through the woods so as not to be conspicuous.Fooled'em every time.
Well,there was a time when we went down to the store to get a soda. Parked in front of the store was the Coca-Cola truck. The big roll up doors were open on the one side. We could see the delivery man taking a cart load of cokes into the store and Mary there to greet him. It was a warm day and our thirst was great. All those sodas just sitting there in plain sight unattended. The temptation was too great and while one was the lookout ,the other snatched a whole case of those delicious coca-colas and headed for the woods. Carrying that wooden case with four six packs of soda in it wasn't easy but we managed it on sheer adrenaline alone ! We made it to the safety of the wood.
Stopping to rest it occurred to us, we can't take this home Mom will know we didn't buy it and how are we going to explain. Oh man,we didn't think this one through. We decided we would just sit right there in those nice shady woods and enjoy our ill gotten gains. Another problem, no bottle opener. This was back in the days before twist off tops. Eventually we figured out a way to get the top off and take a big swallow of that precious nectar,Coca Cola. Ah,oh it is hot. Sitting in the back of that delivery truck that soda was quite warm. Well,nothing to do about that. It isn't that bad once you get used to it.
We sat there in that little patch of woods and each drank several bottles. Quite proud of ourselves for having pulled off the heist. We got clean away and nobody the wiser. We hadn't stole anything from Mary and surely the Coca Cola company would never miss one little case. As we basked in the glory of it all and justified our actions we both began to feel a little ill. Our stomachs began to protest. Too much warm soda on a hot day.
We stashed the remainder of that case away in the bushes and headed home. We came in and tried to act nonchalant. Our faces must have given us away though because Mom asked us if we were alright. We assured her we were fine.
This was probably about 1960 or thereabouts. The exact details are sketchy now. We never tried that trick again. We would make many trips to that store during our childhood and make other memories. We had to pass Aunt Bettys' house on soak hide road to get there. We would often stop to " just say hello" to her and she would give us candy money.
There was one other incident my partner in crime and I pulled off at the 5&10 cent store. I'll save that tale for another time.
Looking back you can't help but wonder why. Why did you do that stuff ? Most kids do I think. It is a sort of right of passage or something. Testing your nerve or wit,I don't know. After we grew older the crime spree ended. My sister was a great partner to have. She never told anybody. We made a great team.
Nope, she never told anybody. Although she has told me about going to the corner store to buy the penny pretzels. I'm going to give her a call and ask her if she ever stole anything ;) I bet she says no.
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