When I was a kid back in Winston-Salem, NC, the local movie theater held Saturday morning screenings for children called “The Kiddie Show.” There they showed movies for kids—even the old black and white cliff-hanging serials. I remember seeing “
The Blob” starring Steve McQueen in one of his first movies (1958). Of course, the
Tom and Jerry and
Roadrunner cartoons were shown as well. What's all this got to do with bottle caps? Well, usually one of the soft drink companies sponsored the event and admission was free if you brought in 10 bottle caps. So, during the week, kids in my neighborhood would rummage through the used bottle cap bucket directly under the refrigerated soft drink dispenser at the corner grocery, looking for the special cap that we needed to get into the upcoming Saturday movie. If you didn't have the right number of caps, you had to come up with a whopping 25¢ or so to get in.
Bottle caps are beautiful, if you take an extra minute to look. Here’s a few for you to peruse.
An AM repost from 11/29/08.
The University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences has a very cool, graphic collection of southeastern peach labels from peach crates. Here are 15 nice ones for your viewing pleasure. My fav is “RED WING.”
These incredibly graphic New York City destination subway scrolls were used to direct subway commuters in the early 1940s. I love the way the fonts are condensed and expanded to fill the space— from the school of “make it fit!”
When I was a kid back in Winston-Salem, NC, the local movie theater held Saturday morning screenings for children called “The Kiddie Show.” There they showed movies for kids—even the old black and white cliff-hanging serials. I remember seeing “The Blob” starring Steve McQueen in one of his first movies (1958). Of course, the Tom and Jerry and Roadrunner cartoons were shown as well. What's all this got to do with bottle caps? Well, usually one of the soft drink companies sponsored the event and admission was free if you brought in 10 bottle caps. So, during the week, kids in my neighborhood would rummage through the used bottle cap bucket directly under the refrigerated soft drink dispenser at the corner grocery, looking for the special cap that we needed to get into the upcoming Saturday movie. If you didn't have the right number of caps, you had to come up with a whopping 25¢ or so to get in. 
“It was just another Thursday, the kind that comes around, oh, about once every week. I was working the graveyard shift for Max, a private dick I owed a favor to. I had an hour left to go and it had just started to rain. As I pulled my black, Auburn V-8 onto Dempsey Street, I saw her. There, under the street lamp, she was lighting a cigarette—wearing red stiletto heels and a Burberry trench coat. This was a dame with an eye for trouble, I thought. I stopped the car just feet from her. She paid no attention.”
