we have to sell our bottles

click pix to enlarge

Growing up in Chilliwack 1945

One bright sunny Saturday morning ...I was just finishing breakfast of hot coco and a bowl of bread with milk and sugar on it......Mum asked me where I was going....Over to get Gary Hogg...we have to sell our bottles......In the last few days we had collected some bottles after school and it was time to sell them and divy the money....That was okay with mom...she knew we would be busy doing something on a nice Saturday morning......I go out the back door and into the attached shed,I say to Hi to my dog Tippy ,..he is dancing about and trying to lick my face , he seems to know we are going on an some adventure....
I grab my wagon and I pull the cargo out to the front gate......yoicks, the road had just been tarred .....they used to do that to keep the dust down......a truck with a pot load of hot tar oil would spray the gravel roads.....oh man, that fresh stuff is sticky....we'll have to walk on the path sidewalk to the town road and back down the other side to Gary's place...but that was only a short block ...anyway that's what we did.....Gary is at his front door and saying bye to his mum.....Next door to Gary's place is Johnson Palmer Motors .....I wave to my dad through the big side door as we pass, ...he is working over the fender of a new 1942 dodge (there were no cars made in 43, 44 and 45) We head down to Kenny's at the Orchard Park....that is another block on the sidewalk alongside the paved town road, its called Yale road...and we cross at the end of Fletcher St....so we don't have to walk on that sticky tarred road.....we have 12 beer bottles and 9 pop bottles and Kenny cheefully gave us 38 cents ....He is laughing and says...I guess you two Garys will have to take the whiskey bottles to the hardware....yep Mr. Wilkenson....we know that ...they sell turpentine in them.....we have collected 16 bottles and were gonna take em to Marshel Wells .... we only get 1 cent each for them, but we've got enough now to make it worthwhile....We say "so long" to Kenny ....Gary says....not bad.. eh, Gary .... thats 17 cents each so far, and we head back down town yaking back and forth... pulling my wagon and Tippy running along with us... We pass Johnston Palmer Garage , cross Nowell st. and stop at On Lees Vegetable market.... hey Gary .... what are those roundy things in that bin.....I dunno....so I ask the old Chinese man and he says.... Pomogrants.... Pomogrants, Gary.....wanna try one? Very good, very good and On Lee hands me one.....5 cents, ok.....We shrugg, ok...why not.....He takes the nickle from Gary and goes to the till table and cuts the fruit in half for us.....Hey, thanks a lot and we clumsily work on those until we get to the Post office where we got comfortable sitting on the middle steps to the outside letter slot....That was a great place to watch the people go by and the parade of cars that stop at the angle parking for a quick run to the post office. Tippy sat at drooled at us while we dug away at the pomogrants with our jacknives. Marshell Wells hardware is just a couple of stores away... towards 5 corners...