Butch Munches On Candy And Watches The World Go By

When I was eleven years old in 1959, I was really raking in the dough. During the summer, in between baseball practices and games, I mowed seven yards in town with Dad’s push mower…each one taking about an hour…for $1.00 per yard. One widow lady gave me an extra 25 cents if I swept her walk and went inside and had iced tea and cookies with her when I was finished. Hey, no problem! I also sold quart-size jars of honey in town for my neighbor, and for each $1.00 jar sold, I received 50 cents. Of course good ol’ Dad gave me pocket change every once in a while for helping him on the farm…cleaning out the barns, feeding the animals, and as a reward for not causing him any major headaches that particular week. At the height of my 1959 summer working stint, I was hauling in $10 to $12 a week…a downright fortune for a 5th grade whippersnapper!

I stashed the loot in a secret hiding place in my upstairs bedroom under a loose floorboard. However, at that age my motto was “spend it while you have it.” So the big question before each trip to town was, “What can I buy today?” I did make a few large purchases…a Rawlings Warren Spahn autographed leather baseball mitt ($4.00), a Milwaukee Braves cap ($2.50), and an entire box (20 packs) of Topps baseball cards ($1.00)…Yes, they were only a nickel a pack…and no, I did NOT get a Mickey Mantle card in the entire box…very disheartening!

Most of my money was spent on goodies from the drug store, grocery store, and pool room. (Yes, little kids could go into the pool room, but until we were at least 13 years old, we were not allowed in the back room where the men played poker…and occasionally let out a few swear words. Although the pool room had candy and ice cream, I usually purchased a nickel’s worth of Spanish peanuts from the vending machine, and a bottle of Nehi orange pop from the old water-filled Coca-Cola cooler, and then sat and watched the older men and high school boys play 8-ball and rotation pool.

Rentschler’s Regal grocery also had candy and frozen ice cream treats, but my big purchase there was usually a bottle of ice-cold Choc-ola from the vending machine out front…and I LOVED that drink! At only 10 cents a bottle, I could easily chug two or three of those on a hot afternoon. But of course, my favorite place to go was the drug store, at that time operated by Arthur and Pauline Friend (and later owned by Gene “Slick” and Mary Ellen “Pee Wee” Harmon). The drug store carried Glovers ice cream (made in Frankfort), a fountain drink assortment, and an amazing assortment of candy. Ice cream was a nickel per dip, candy bars were a nickel, and fountain drinks were a dime. My normal purchase was a cherry phosphate (“red river”) drink, a sawdust sundae (two dips of vanilla ice cream topped with powdered malted milk), a candy bar, and a pack of Topps baseball cards (containing a stick of gum). I could then sit on the “liars bench” out front, look at my baseball cards, talk with my friends, and watch the world go by.

The drug store always kept up with the newest candy crazes, and for those of you who were kids in the 1950s, you might remember…atomic fireballs, pixie stixs, satellite wafers, candy cigarettes and bubble gum cigars, Nik-l-Nip (wax bottles with flavored sugar drink), candy necklaces, chocolate coins (with gold wrappers), hot tamales, fizzies, PEZ dispensers, Mamba fruit chews, marshmallow cones, fruit slices, Bit-o-honey, Laffy Taffy, and whistle pops…just to name a few, in addition to all of the earlier candy bars which had been around for years…a sugar-lover’s dream come true!

Once in a blue moon, I would accompany my folks on a 45-minute drive to Crawfordsville on Old State Road 47 in our God-forsaken pink and white 1955 Buick Special so Mom could do a little shopping in the big-time stores, while Dad sipped coffee at the Silver Shanty. In addition to visiting the Sportsman’s Shop (to drool over the sporting goods equipment) and Dellekamps (to place our feet in the shoe X-ray machine), we also always made a beeline to the G.C. Murphy candy counter, which housed bulk candy. Fifteen cents could buy a big bag full, but it was usually gone by the time we reached home!

Alas, those days of 5 and 10 cent candy bars, ice cream, and fountain drinks are gone. The drug store, pool room, and grocery are no more. And the kids today don’t have to work to earn money…they receive an allowance. No more sidewalk benches to relax and watch the world go by either…So what can they do for fun?…That’s right…stay at home, watch TV, play video games….and text…Whoopee. I think that in today’s hectic and fast-paced world, every little town needs an old-fashioned drug store, with a bench out front…so a kid can sit and talk with his friends, lick his cone, munch on candy…and just be a kid…don’t you?

– John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 32 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.