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Hi Neighbor

Category: Life

Published on Wednesday, 21 July 2010 05:00

Written by Paul Roy

You know how there are some things which make you feel old? Like this picture I took the other day. This is something you don’t see much of anymore, at least here in New England. I think sign painting has become a lost art. It isn’t so much the fact of the painted sign which makes me feel old, but rather the memories it conjures up.

I remember as a kid my first job when I was 12 was to go to my Dad’s grocery store on Saturday and put away the empties. In those days all beer, soda and even milk bottles were returnable. The beer and soda bottles would be sent down into the cellar of the store, stacked in “banana boxes” awaiting my arrival to sort them into the proper cases. The soda bottles, were mostly in wooden cases although there was an occasional heavy cardboard box and these had to be sorted by manufacturer. In this area Cott soda was the biggie, “Its Cott to be good” was their slogan. Then there was Polar, Canada Dry, Coke (the original one in the hard green bottles) and the other national brands. (Did your Doctor recommend drinking warm Coke to treat the flu?)

Then there was the beer. Narragansett, was the big one as I remember, “Hi Neighbor, have a ‘Gansett.” Was the slogan and the brewery was down in Cranston RI, using water from the Scituate reservoir. Then of course there was Carling’s Black Label, “Hey Mabel, how about a Black Label?”, and Schlitz “The beer that made Milwaukee famous.” Followed by Schaefer, the one beer to have when you’re having more than one, Ballantine Ale and Rupert’s Knickerbocker. There were several other local beers and Budweiser and Miller were a very small part of the market then. I remember Schaeffer being my fathers beer of choice and I may have had a taste or two. Some of these beers are even making a comeback, although like Coke, they aren’t quite the same.

I would slave down in the dusty basement sorting these bottles, they were all stacked in front of the compressors for the various refrigeration units we had, so it was always dusty and hot. When I finished the sorting and stacking I had to sweep the cellar out. I then would collect my $4.00 and life was good.

Back in those days, the late Sixties and early seventies, four dollars was a boatload of money for a 12 year old kid. And I learned early about budgeting and saving (not sure what has happened to those lessons since). Every week I would put two dollars in the savings bank and keep two dollars to spend. If I needed something I would calculate what I would need to keep from that money to be able to buy what I wanted. How soon I wanted it determined how much I would keep. I continued this practice even after I was promoted to stock clerk and when I turned sixteen; I had enough money to buy my first car, a brand new 1973 Chevrolet Nova, paying cash. It was a good feeling then and would be now if I could do it again. I paid $2472.19 for it and there are days I wonder how much it would be worth now that it is considered a classic. Which is another of those things that makes me feel old.

But I was on the cutting edge in those days I’ll tell you. I had my eight track tape player and could just crank up all the great music of the day, roll those windows down and cruise up and down Main Street, living large I was.

How did I stray from the sign? Can anyone out there tell me where this sign is? No, there isn’t a prize, just curious to see. (Hint: It fits into the theme of the Roadside Online website)