ooo-ooooo that smell, can't you smell that smell

BobS · August 15, 2007 11:15PM

So, I received a package form BBXchange yesterday, run of 1980's baseball wax boxes, to sell packs at an upcoming show. As I stood in the kitchen making dinner, I unwrapped the shrinkwrap from each box, and the air in the kitchen began to remind me of much simpler times. The smell of those boxes took me back to 1986, 8th grade. A time when my best friend and I couldn't be separated. A time when we spent so many hours hanging out at the 7th Inning Stretch (shop) that the owner eventually decided to hire us to bust boxes and put sets together on Saturdays. A time when he'd give us each a new box for every honest day's work. A time when the new box was 1986 Fleer Basketball (DOH!!!!). No wife, no 9-5, no mortgage, no car payments, no bills, no sick loved ones, nothing but the smell of cardboard and wax paper in the air.

Downtown1974 · August 15, 2007 11:29PM

It is pretty nostalgic. Its amazing how much has changed in the last 20 - 25 years. I remember getting my allowance on Fridays ($5.00 for the week) and going to Peppercorns Food Station and spending it all on 1981 Topps BB. My mother would get upset because I would be broke for the rest of the week. I never had ding-dong cart money.

BobaFett72 · August 15, 2007 11:42PM

good times, good memories and simpler cards. No chase sets, fabric swatches or other completely unnecessary bullcrap.
people actually collected sets, traded with each other and KIDS actually collected in droves.

EchoCanyon · August 16, 2007 12:18AM

OK, so I'm a bit older, but it was March of 1977. Tons of kids on my block. We could not wait until the corner store got their first shipments of cards. Every single boy collected cards and some girls, too. Packs were 15¢ (or so). So the 50¢ allowance went pretty far. Every day a different kid would run to down to Augie's, "Did the baseball cards come today?" No, no, no. It was always tomorrow.

Well, Little Tommy (there was also Big Tommy), came running back with a digusted look on his face, "Augie got the cards, but they sent the wrong year, he got last year's (1976) cards)." So my older brother walks down and sees that Augie's is selling them for 5¢, just to get rid of them. He comes back and asks how much money I had, which was about $1.50. My brother added the $2.75 his had and marched back down to the corner. Oh, I couldn't wait. I cracked my knuckles and eargerly awaited his return. I had never opened so many packs at once. He comes back and says, "we're not opening these!" Huh? I just gave you all the money I own and we're not opening them? Nope.

30 years later, the packs are still unopened. Not a bad 5¢ investment, huh?

tombo · August 16, 2007 12:26AM

I can remember walking to Ryan gas station in Alsip, Il. back in the summer of 1970. I hadn't even started kindergarten yet, but I went with some "older" boys - 2nd & 3rd graders. The packs were 10 cents each and if you bought 10 packs at once, the cost would come out to $1.01 with sales tax. One of us figured out that if we bought 5 packs at 1st for .50 and then went out opened them and went back in to buy the other 5 packs, we didn't need to come up with the extra penny. It was late in the summer, so we were stuck getting Johnny Bench, Nolan Ryan and Seattle Pilot team cards, instead of Don Kessinger, Randy Hundley or Bill Hands. I always say if I could go back in time for a single day, it would be the summer of 1970 ---------- of course I would take my life savings with me and clean out Ryan's supply!!!

MooseDog · August 16, 2007 4:01AM

Yes, it is amazing how a smell can trigger a fond memory. Here's a 60s flashback...I guess none of you guys are that old...

My first cards were 1968 Topps Baseball...I was 8 years old and the A's had just moved to Oakland and from my very first game I was hooked on baseball. The drug store on Leimert Blvd was about 1/2 walk or bike ride from my house and I regularly took my nickels, dimes, and quarters and went up to buy packs of cards. Imagine that back then a whole dollar in hand and was able to buy a whole box (24 packs x 5 cents).

I had one of those army green colored plastic lockers I probably got from an ad printed on the wrappers and sorted them by teams. The prize for me was a Catfish Hunter. I wanted Reggie Jackson but he wasn't in the set. I didn't understand that at the time and kept buying the new series looking for Reggie.

That drug store was my regular haunt until about 1975. They closed as the Paylesses (then Walgreens and Rite Aid) made the corner pharmacy obsolete. All my old cards are long gone with a few exceptions but that '68 set still is one of my favorites.

However, whenever I am in a drug store that smell brings me back to those days, especially when I walk down the candy aisle (no cards there anymore though...)

Yankeeefan · August 16, 2007 4:37AM

Moose,

1968 was the year I fell in love with baseball and baseball cards. I had a mom & pop convenience store right down the block and they sold cards. I think every cent I got my hands on that summer was spent in that store. I thought the greatest thing in the world, was when my grandparents came to visit. My grandfather and my dad would look through my cards with me and they'd tell me stories about how great Mays, Mantle and Aaron were, how the Dodgers and Yankees used to battle nearly every October, about TeddyBallgame and DiMag.
As my grandfather got up to leave, he'd always pull a couple of quarters out of his pocket and slip them into my hand and tell me " SHHH. " The very next morning I'd be out the door as soon as my mom let me (I was 6 at the time) and down the block I'd go hoping they'd have at least 10 packs of cards in the box. When they were out of cards, I probably asked 2 times a day if they received a new shipment yet. (It was very tough to have a few nickels in your pocket and no cards at the store cause that ice cream man came around 2 or 3 times a day!!!)

It was a great time... the neighborhood was filled with kids around my age. We played baseball everyday, flipped cards on someone's porch every night. I still remember opening a pack and getting my 1st Mickey Mantle card and the very next day getting another (and trading it to my best friend for 25 Yankee cards and a Yankee yearbook)
I still have that Mantle card!

srs1a · August 16, 2007 4:48AM

MooseDog and Yankeefan, you are singing my song. '68 were the cards I first collected and in my case it was the Lincroft (NJ) Pharmacy every saturday after Little League. I nearly wet my pants when I pulled Mr. Mantle -- he went to 3rd grade with me almost every day in my short pocket -- I still have the card and he looks darn rough, but well loved

. I also remember pulling Superstars and getting to excited I had to do laps around the backyard. A much simpler time, for sure.

easydoesit · August 16, 2007 5:23AM

My memory is sneaking quarters off my dad's dresser to run to Bidwells deli down the road and buy 5 packs of 1980 topps. Then I would run home, open them, use a pen to write on each players card that was traded by that point, throw away all the A's and Royals because I saw them as the biggest yankee threats, and finally put all the allstars in one big bundle with a tight rubber band around them. No wonder I have never sold that original set, it probably isnt' worth 10 bucks at this point. EXCEPT to ME! And the Rick Bosetti I could never get in a pack... it is a 79 topps because I had one of those. I had at least 10 of some dork named Henderson though. They all went to Troy, my friend, or were tossed in the can next to my bed. Ah the good old days. Now a days I have to drive 18 miles to the nearest card shop, write a check for $120 to buy 12 packs, that only have 4 cards each, in hopes of getting an autograph of some teenager that still works at Sears in the off season. Then I get back to Freebay to find out the set actually has 25 sp rookies that I didnt get any of. HMM>>>> something doesnt sound right here.

jradke4 · August 16, 2007 5:27AM

i still remember the smell as well. but those days a long gone. no more wax or gum to give off those odors. even the cardboard had a nice odor. the new stuff really doesnt smell the same. though i havent given any a good sniff, it just that you couldnt miss the smell in years gone by.

zep33 · August 16, 2007 8:28AM

Great stories guys

this year's Heritage had the smell that brought back all those memories for me

rbdjr1 · August 16, 2007 8:38AM

<< <i>OK, so I'm a bit older, but it was March of 1977. Tons of kids on my block. We could not wait until the corner store got their first shipments of cards. Every single boy collected cards and some girls, too. Packs were 15¢ (or so). So the 50¢ allowance went pretty far. Every day a different kid would run to down to Augie's, "Did the baseball cards come today?" No, no, no. It was always tomorrow.

Well, Little Tommy (there was also Big Tommy), came running back with a digusted look on his face, "Augie got the cards, but they sent the wrong year, he got last year's (1976) cards)." So my older brother walks down and sees that Augie's is selling them for 5¢, just to get rid of them. He comes back and asks how much money I had, which was about $1.50. My brother added the $2.75 his had and marched back down to the corner. Oh, I couldn't wait. I cracked my knuckles and eargerly awaited his return. I had never opened so many packs at once. He comes back and says, "we're not opening these!" Huh? I just gave you all the money I own and we're not opening them? Nope.

30 years later, the packs are still unopened. Not a bad 5¢ investment, huh? >>

Sometimes, big brother can be cool!

rd

metalmike · August 16, 2007 8:40AM

Good times those were. I still have one card from the first pack I bought- it is a 1969 Dennis Menke. My fondest memory is from around 1972, my Dad and I were at the local dump-back in those days there was no garbage pickup. I used to go snooping around,ok I was garbage picking-hey I was 12. I found a big cardboard box full of BASEBALL cards! There was at least 2000 cards from the late 1950's to about 1968. I was stoked! I played with those cards, sorted them into teams and had a great time! I was the envy of all the kids in my neighborhood. No price guides -holders but who cares? I had fun with them. I sold the cards for 40 dollars in 1977 when I went into the Navy (needed party money), but I did save one card and it was my prize Dennis Menke. The card is VG at best but to me it is priceless. Mike

tennesseebanker · August 16, 2007 8:42AM

I believe that smell is called Moof

enjoy it my friend

eyebone · August 16, 2007 8:49AM

Mallat's Gas Station in Peterborough, ON, Canada, had a small store attached to it. I remember my brother and myself taking our allowance and then scrounging up pop bottles (in the late '60s you used to get 2 cents per bottle) in order to buy as many packs as possible (packs were 10 cents I think). The first year I can remember was '68-9 OPC Hockey. We would buy our cards and also a few watermelon bubble gum (did you guys in the States have those? about the size of a golf ball and they tasted like sweet watermelon). If Dad let us stay up late on Saturday night to watch the entire Maple Leafs' game then that was a bonus. Ah....those were indeed the days!!

Eyebone

Alfonz24 · August 16, 2007 8:52AM

I was just thinking the other day of smell of gum from packs. I remember going to watch my brother play little league (I was 7 and too young, no T ball back then) and the concession sometimes had cards. If they didn't, the have them, the little store across the street had them.

2dueces · August 16, 2007 9:21AM

Good story. My time of innocence was 1968-69. We all wanted to grow up so fast, we didn't know how good we had it. Play baseball till the street lights came on every day all day all summer. Great times and thank you for reminding me of them. Joe

killingdream · August 16, 2007 10:48AM

No stories about the aroma of gum but I still fondly remember buying my first baseball cards in 1977 at Candy Rama inside the historic Jenkins Arcade in downtown Pittsburgh. My father had a barber shop across from the Arcade building and I remember spending lots of time inside that huge old historic building. Jenkins Arcade was a large building that was a combo of retail as well as offices and service businesses like dentists and doctors. It was a historic landmark that was one of the first indoor shopping malls. In 1984 it was razed to make way for a new skyscraper. I still remember grabbing cello packs that were located in the gum section on the left side of the store. They had wax too but I liked the cellos because you could see the cards inside. The Jenkins Arcade , barber shop and my dad are all gone now , but the memories of that great time in life will always remain with me. Not only in my head but in my 1977 set assembled from those cellos that I bought there 30 years ago. Yes indeed I still have each and every one of those cards. That 1977 set is in far from perfect condition but it will always be my most cherished. It is a fine example of why baseball cards are more than just cardboard.

ooo-ooooo that smell, can't you smell that smell

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