“How much do we have now?”
That was the big question standing outside the store with a crate of empty bottles and a pocket full of coins. 😄
You didn’t need a job interview, a bank account, or a complicated plan. You just gathered up every empty bottle you could find, hauled them to the corner store, and suddenly you had spending money.
And then came the serious part.
Counting every penny twice.
Looking at the candy.
Doing the math.
Changing your mind.
Then changing it again.
Those little coins felt important because you earned them in your own kid-sized way. A bottle return could turn into jawbreakers, licorice, bubble gum, or a paper bag full of whatever your money would stretch to that day.
It wasn’t much.
But back then, it felt like fortune.