Remembering the power of one cent

Gas was 35 cents a gallon when I started driving. It just does not seem possible that it is now averaging $2.50 a gallon and still on the rise. I won't mention the "I" word but I have been reminiscing about what a single penny could purchase when I was a kid. Today, if a penny is spotted on the ground, many feel it is hardly worth the effort to bend over and retrieve it. I still get excited when I find any amount of money!

I can remember when I could buy three Tootsie Rolls for 1 cent. Or I could get five sugar coated lemon drops, not that I wanted those but that was a lot for one penny. Licorice came in red or black rolls for a penny. There was also the Pixy Stix straw filled with tart flavored sugar for a single cent. (I read somewhere that many of us are probably suffering from Pixy Stix lung because it was so easy to accidently inhale the contents of those straws!) There were little wax bottles filled with a sweet liquid, barrel shaped hard candies that tasted like root beer, or the Atomic Fire Ball - each for only one cent!

But the best bargain of all, for me, was Bazooka Bubble Gum.

For one penny, I could enjoy a piece of delicious gum (scored in the middle in the event I wanted to share or save half til later) wrapped in a comic and my very own fortune! Talk about your market bundling! And, the little tiny print told you how to send off for prizes when you had saved enough comics. Wow!

I never did save enough comics to be worth while but it would have been fun to send off for the prize catalog. Of course, for that, I would have had to justify the use of a five cent stamp.