My story is quite similar to Ted's. I grew up in the 50's in Schenectady, NY, where my Dad worked for GE which basically supported and made the town viable. Schenectady, for what ever reason, was going to be included in the last series of that new, gobsmacking 1952 Topps baseball card set, which had made our gang joyous for the whole summer, particularly we knew that you-know-who had to be included in it. My brand loyalty to Bowman had faded because these new Topps beauties just stole the show. Word reached us that our local general store was loaded and the dash was on. We marched in and bought as many packs as our modest budgets would allow. Soon wrappers flew, gum ingested and we sat down to the real business: Who got what and were they open for trading?
Myself and another pulled Jackie Robinsons. Not bad. Another guy got an Eddie Mathews. Lucky lad. And, yes, one guy pulled the Mick. We insisted he pass it around to his friends (us) with their greasy dirty, rough little fingers. I shudder to think about it. Great card memories.
|