Nice to see how many of us old timers that collected in the fifties that there are here, and even two or three that were bustin' packs in the forties. Let us give a kind thought to our departed friend Joe Palaez who would have collected Play Balls.
In my mind's eye I can still see myself playing with a handful of cards someone had given me in 1956, amongst them a '54 Topps Ernie Banks and a '56 Topps Del Ennis. Loved that little bear cub in the corner and the way Ennis was jumping. By 1957 I was collecting with a vengeance. Didn't have easy access to any stores but my Uncle Harry owned a cigar shop in Brooklyn and every so often he'd hand me a few packs. I must have been pretty good in the schoolyard flipping games because I had a yard-high stack of '57s. Also had a number of football, basketball and hockey cards but those sports were just diversions until baseball season started again. Collected cards until 1959 when we moved from the suburbs to New York City and then my nickels and dimes went to comics. Each month I'd patronize the green newspaper shack at West 86th and Broadway, Superman, Superboy, Action, Adventure, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, ten cents apiece, hanging by clothes pins in a neat and colorful array. Great memories.
