My dad was in the Air Force. When he got to the 20 year mark with the
Air Force he was given a choice between two assignments that he didn't
want. So he chose to retire and move back to where he grew up outside
of Ocala, Florida.
I was in the seventh grade when we moved there. I had made it to the
seventh grade living on Air Force bases where I could walk or ride a
bike anywhere and feel safe and be allowed to go out without my
parents. I walked back and forth to school. I went and played with
friends in other parts of the neighborhood on the base. I even went
to the Jiffy store on the backside of the base just outside the gate.
Our house outside of Ocala was 30 minutes away from town. The nearest
Jiffy store was a 5 mile walk away. I never took that walk.
But as I got used to being out in the country I would ride my bike up
and down the driveway and then venture out on the road that was not
very busy but busy enough to make it an adventure.
My brother and I wanted to earn some money somehow but being out in
the middle of nowhere that was kind of hard. My parents had a garbage
can in the garage where they threw their aluminum cans from the drinks
they had and then they would recycle the aluminum. My mother
suggested maybe gathering aluminum cans from the side of the road and
then we could go and recycle them and get a few dollars for a our
efforts.
So one summer my brother and I ventured out onto the road with plastic
garbage bags to gather aluminum cans.
It was hot! Hot and sweaty. Most of the can still had some liquid in
them, usually beer. So we have to dump them out. We learned how to
dump the beer out of the cans without getting it on us, which was
sometimes an adventure. As our range got larger in our search for
things thrown from vehicle windows we found bottles and cans and
garbage and junk. We gathered a lot of cans!
We gathered enough cans to make a little bit of money and buy some
Micronaut toys.
Riding bikes on the side of the road gathering aluminum cans is one of
my good memories of being a kid. All I didn't like not being able to
go to the store on my own it still became an adventure to go out and
gather the things that people through from their vehicles because they
either didn't want them and there are didn't want to be caught with
foam or whatever. And we made a little money.
Good memories!
