Six bottles would get us in to the Sat. matinee
Growing up in Chilliwack.......1946
A fair amount of change could be earned by collecting bottles ..of all kinds .....Gary Hogg and I learned this early in life and had a route picked out that yielded a good living ...especially after Saturday night.....we would take my wagon and cruise the alleys in town...and also learned of some of the better households....the beer bottles and pop bottles could be sold at Kenny's*.....(Orchard Park Service)...he sold Ice there as well ....hey, lots of ice boxes in those days..,.he had a blue truck with a metal lined box...I guess it was insulated....big white letters on the side ....ICE.....oh yeah...he sold lots of ice....The cabins at Cultus Lake were all ice boxes...great care had to be taken to keep stuff cool.....He was a huge tubby man...a guy that pops in my memory so vividly....I guess like a cartoon character...Fat and Jolly..always something friendly to say to his customers... his ruddy face and crewcut...bib overhauls..there was probably a guy like that in every town....the rate for beer bottles was twenty cents a dozen and pop bottles were two cents each...not bad...six bottles would get us into the Saturday matinee.....hey how long would that take....we had to go to the hardware stores to unload the whiskey bottles...all hard liquor bottles brought one cent and all were called ... whiskey bottles ....well, that was a lot harder sell ...we had to catch the hardware man when sales for turpentine were good....they poured the bottles from 45 gallon drums...we didn't have to clean the bottles....I guess they did.
One particular hot afternoon ...these two ragamuffins rolled into Marshall Wells Hardware with a full wagon load of whiskey bottles...a few people were in the store ...and who was at the counter checking something out.....my mother....hey Gary there's my mom......Hey Mom...Hi Mom.....I had no idea why she was all of a sudden 2 feet shorter and trying desperately to deal with her kid and a wagon full of whiskey bottles...well she was not stuck for words...she went on about how the kids collected..whiskey bottles....from....other places....they could make spending money getting these bottles at other peoples places....hey....right mom...and we proceeded to count out our booty for the man....He must have got a kick out of that...I heard the story years later and realized only then the bind we had put mum in....she only told that to close relatives and good friends.......
It was about this time that dad bought the truck box..yep the blue metal lined box that was on Kenny's truck....quite a surprise when he brought it home as a trailer ...hooked oh to the back of a our 38 dodge....wow...a camping trailer...mum painted the inside and dad mounted four folding beds..two on each side....all the stuff could be put under the bottom beds at night...o ya ..how cool is that...we had usually stayed in tents when we camped at the lake......well that trailer was something.......the campgrounds were right at main beach*...well..up to the left a bit..along the creek and over a bit....there was two cookhouses in there...framed open buildings with a roof...it was friendly ...everyone shared the wood stoves...the tents and the super trailer were parked wherever they fit okay.....swim and fish all day...could life be any better...there was always new kids to meet...the trailer worked great...dad would come up after work...I don't remember him staying on holidays....like for a week or two....he always went back and forth to work ....every year we camped somehow...tent, trailer or cabin...for at least two weeks....on Sat. night the action was at the pavilion...there was a dance and those big teenagers came from everywhere...we watched from a distance..wondering what that will be like in a few years.....in the meantime I am pretty sure I was having more fun than any kid on earth.
That main beach camping went on for a few more years then was all moved to Cultus park at the lake's south end, after that mum and dad rented a cabin every summer...we sure looked forward to that in the dreary days of winter.
The site of Orchard park service has always been very successful...especially in the fortys , fiftys and sixtys...there was something magic about that corner....it must have had the ying and yang good business sites are supposed to have.
One particular hot afternoon ...these two ragamuffins rolled into Marshall Wells Hardware with a full wagon load of whiskey bottles...a few people were in the store ...and who was at the counter checking something out.....my mother....hey Gary there's my mom......Hey Mom...Hi Mom.....I had no idea why she was all of a sudden 2 feet shorter and trying desperately to deal with her kid and a wagon full of whiskey bottles...well she was not stuck for words...she went on about how the kids collected..whiskey bottles....from....other places....they could make spending money getting these bottles at other peoples places....hey....right mom...and we proceeded to count out our booty for the man....He must have got a kick out of that...I heard the story years later and realized only then the bind we had put mum in....she only told that to close relatives and good friends.......
It was about this time that dad bought the truck box..yep the blue metal lined box that was on Kenny's truck....quite a surprise when he brought it home as a trailer ...hooked oh to the back of a our 38 dodge....wow...a camping trailer...mum painted the inside and dad mounted four folding beds..two on each side....all the stuff could be put under the bottom beds at night...o ya ..how cool is that...we had usually stayed in tents when we camped at the lake......well that trailer was something.......the campgrounds were right at main beach*...well..up to the left a bit..along the creek and over a bit....there was two cookhouses in there...framed open buildings with a roof...it was friendly ...everyone shared the wood stoves...the tents and the super trailer were parked wherever they fit okay.....swim and fish all day...could life be any better...there was always new kids to meet...the trailer worked great...dad would come up after work...I don't remember him staying on holidays....like for a week or two....he always went back and forth to work ....every year we camped somehow...tent, trailer or cabin...for at least two weeks....on Sat. night the action was at the pavilion...there was a dance and those big teenagers came from everywhere...we watched from a distance..wondering what that will be like in a few years.....in the meantime I am pretty sure I was having more fun than any kid on earth.
That main beach camping went on for a few more years then was all moved to Cultus park at the lake's south end, after that mum and dad rented a cabin every summer...we sure looked forward to that in the dreary days of winter.
The site of Orchard park service has always been very successful...especially in the fortys , fiftys and sixtys...there was something magic about that corner....it must have had the ying and yang good business sites are supposed to have.
Labels: growing up in chilliwack
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