posted
Feeling real nostalgiac these days over trips I used to take to the corner store of my youth. I usually picked up comic books and candy in an actual paper bag! Trying to do the calculations in my head, but I would come home with 5-6 comics and some good candy like nerds, gobstoppers and those red licorice pipes! (Where are those now?)And it was all under 10 bucks! Too bad I didn't put that aside for apple stock back then, heh heh. I really miss those days, do you have good memories of going to your favorite corner store back then?
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kevdugp73
He's eating after dark again....
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I'm 42 now rip, and we had a little general store just down the road from where I lived. I remember far back enough when I was getting one dollar for allowance....that was enough to buy a bag of chips, a bar, and a pop. Used to love collecting the old glass pop bottles, as you could take them directly to the store to cash in. *I remember a time going to buy Empire Strikes Back trading cards and the store had run out...the owner of the store gave me $5 to run to the wholesale warehouse (just a couple of buildings down) to buy a box for the store so I could get some...
This place didn't have comics, but when I was a bit older, a 10 minute bike ride would take me to a store to buy comics...I remember a fad collecting Richie Rich.
My best comic book memory was stopping at a little store on the way home from school...kinda of my first comic book store, as the dude had older issues for sale. My fav comic as a kid was G I Joe and the guy at the store would hold any back issues he could find for me. Before ebay and the internet...this was a big deal!
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Definitely Riptide. Im 47 now so it was in the 70s and early 80s that 3 places stick out to me. Chronologically the one by by the local swimming pool, I remember that lipstick candy and how weird it was plus jolly ranchers. The next I remember much better and it was a 5 & dime Ben Franklin right next to a one screen movie theatre. Mom would give my sisters and I 50 cents each and actually get quite a bit of candy back then. Then it was off to see the movie.
The last one was the QuikTrip which was a 10 minute bike ride from our house. The favorite items were baseball cards for .25 cents a pack, quench gum or bubble yum and as you know back then arcade games were huge and most of the convenience stores had at least one.
I remember those licorice ropes were pretty big item Riptide.
Kevdug. Do you have any of those empire strikes back cards? Also liked Richie rich.
[ 29. March 2016, 10:21: Message edited by: TerdNthePoolGGB ]
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I was a huge arcade junkie back in the 80's when I was a kid. So most of my allowance was spent changed into quarters/tokens for arcade games. But every now and then I'd buy sweets at corner liquor stores (which strangely looked more like candy shops back then, at least in my neck of the woods they did). Some of my favorite sweets to buy back then were candy bars like Whatchamacallit, Caramello, Abba Zabbas. Other kinds of sweets I enjoyed were Bubble Tape, Tongue Splashers, Choco Tacos, Push Up Ice Cream Pops, Ring Pops, Hot Tamales...etc..damn I ate a lot of junk as a kid. A wonder I'm still living. If I wasn't buying cheap sweets with my pocket change, then I was usually buying collectible things like Baseball Cards or Garbage Pail Kids. Still actually have a good amount of those today. As far as comic books...I never really got too heavily into those. Not the normal DC/Marvel ones anyway. There was a time I became kind of obsessed with collecting EC's Tales From the Crypt comics. But that wasn't until I was a young teen in the 90's. And they were all mainly re-issues at that time so not really worth much. But I didn't care about that, I just really liked the horror theme of them. Sadly I don't still have those. =(
[ 20. September 2016, 13:55: Message edited by: Pyro ]
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kevdugp73
He's eating after dark again....
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Cool guys. Terd...I have some Empire Strikes Back Cards (I think the same set)...but not the original ones I had...likely got them at a collectables store. Also still have a stack of Richie Rich comics. Comics is about the only thing that I still have some of my originals. Liked all this stuff and periodically bought/collected comics, MAD magazines, and the black and white Conan mags...and some early WWF magazines.
I collected the Garbage Pail Kids cards as well Pyro...and hockey (not baseball) cards. Lucky to still have all my teeth re: the candy we ate as kids: bottle caps, sweet tarts, mojos, fun dip, rocket suckers (I think these were created by dentists to keep business going!).
*Anytime we go up to the "city" (Halifax), they have a store there called the Freak Lunchbox which sells all this old vintage candy...pretty cool place.
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Love hearing these responses! Kev, we were in the same province in the 80's, I was in Amherst, and occasionally we took trips up to Halifax to see Citadael hill and such. Is the candy bowl still there? That's where we got our old school candy fix. I recall there used to be a comic store right near the commons park when we visited. I got a bunch of back issues when we visited. As for my comic tastes, my dad used to bring home Sgt. Rock, GI combat and Fightin Marines, and I used to read them and eventually fell in love with G.I. Joe. I was mostly into war comics when in 85 I got bitten by the Marvel monster, and I got seriously obsessed with Spider man and X-men. Comics kept my interest until the sportscards mania hit, and then I became a card shark with hockey and baseball cards. Looking back on it, it is incredible that with all the candy consumed, that I am not diabetic or something today! We have a bulk barn here, that makes me nervous when I pass by it. Reminds me of when the old Save-Easy stores used to have buckets of stuff like they do now!
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kevdugp73
He's eating after dark again....
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Cool Rip. Not sure about the Candy Bowl...the Freak Lunchbox is right downtown. I'm about 1.5 hours from Halifax, but visit often enough...I'm not much for the city. *I vividly remember going to a comic book store in Halifax with my Dad and picking out G I Joe #1...when I asked Dad, he said sure (it looked like the price tag said $2...but when we got to the cash, of course it was $20!). A decent chunk of change back then...so he made me put it back! But I did score # 47! Also, I remember only once actually saving my money and ordering from the States via one of the comic clubs...the order forms were inside most comics back then. The Canadian dollar was actually worse than it is now, so it cost me a bundle...but a super high when they finally came...all G I Joe issues I couldn't get around here. *Just re-read your post Rip....the comic store I was talking about was the one by the commons....fun times....
[ 30. March 2016, 19:18: Message edited by: kevdugp73 ]
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Kev, where did you grow up again? Was it Dartmouth, Enfield or Truro? I think you told me once, but I can't remember. Yes, we went to the same comic store in Halifax. I forget what it was called. Did they start selling sportscards there not long after? I seem to recall going around the same place and they were charging ridiculous prices for baseball rookie cards around 85 or 86. Sadly I never obtained the early GI Joe issues like no. #1. I think I started collecting when they were in the 20's. The snake eyes-Storm Shadow story really captured my imagination. Heck, I was ninja crazy at that time! I believe I still have all my issues in storage. I have to dig the, out some time. Did you manage to save any of your old collection? As I said, I stopped with comics when it started to get too expensive in the 90's. I did however get interested again when I visited Charlottetown, P.E.I. a number of years ago and I cam across this store with large amounts of old comics. I bought a whole bunch of 70's comics like Tomb of Dracula, and Morbius. I just got a few issues recently, so have a little of the comic bug again. I really loved Halifax for a time when I lived there in 96-97, haven't much time there since, but have good memories.
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kevdugp73
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Actually New Glasgow rip...about 1.5 hrs from Halifax (still here!). Yes...I still have all my G I Joe comics...I have most all from #1 to #100, then missing about half from #101 to #155 (I did scoop the last issue though (155) which is worth a few bucks. And I also have lots of the newer series (Image). Recently learned that they re-vamped the original series...started from #156 and quite a few issues out since then. I'd really like to get them, but so so low on the totem pole right now...married with 2 kids...my wife is pretty tolerant of my collecting, but I know my limits and try to keep it "respectable". Aiming for Disney in November (will be my first time...and about 30 of my family members are going)...saving every penny right now. *Where are you at now Rip?
Coincidently, since this post came up, got me thinking about comics again...certainly not going to start collecting again, but was at the dollar store today and they had a bunch of graphic novels for $3 bucks each (cover price typically $15-$20) and I bought 5 or 6...never seen them there before. I thought it was a pretty good score....Spider-man, Cap America, Doc Strange, etc...
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I used to stop by the pharmacy on the way back from elementary school in the '80s and got baseball cards that used to come with bubble gum. I also got little boxes of Lemonheads, Cherry Clan, and also Bazooka gum that cost three cents!
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Ah - childhood memories! I have fond memories of walking to a local store by the edge of a wood to pick up the latest issue of 'Secret Wars'. In those days US comics were used as ballast on ships so they were almost impossible to collect in sequence over here. But Marvel had a UK division and Secret Wars was published by them as a UK (large) format comic, with half an issue of the US story, a backup strip (Alpha Flight, Iceman, Zoids) and some other bits (letters pages, competitions, etc). One nice thing about the UK comics, is they often came with free gifts! A comic, a can of drink, a bar of something, and maybe some crisps (chips) all for around £1.20 ($2). Good times!
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
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I picked up our groceries most of the time from our local store back in the day and was allowed to get something for myself so i usually got some candy and a comic book or music magazine like Suosikki (finnish), Bravo (german) or Okej (swedish).
When we got our weekly allowance, we usually visited this little kiosk which had lots of comic books and really greasy (but good ) junk food.
Secret Wars was released here as part of the finnish Spider-Man book. It was a 52 page book so you got one Spidey adventure plus the ongoing SW series.
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Just can't get enough of these memories. Thanks for sharing similar experiences people! Kev, was a huge G.I. Joe fan as well. Started around issue 24 or something. Loved the whole Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow uncovered relationship. Funny it was my Dad who got me into war comics. He used to bring Sgt. Rock home and that's how I got into it. Started slowly to buy vintage comics again, but I don't want to buy the volume I did back then. Decided to specialize in one kind of genre where there aren't many issues like Spiderman and others. Going with 70's horror comics like Tomb of Dracula. Going to buy an old issue of the 1-70 series about every week. Then maybe after a bit of Morbius, Man-Thing, Curse of the Werewolf, and Ghostriders I don't have. Specializing like that is recommended for old dudes like me who want to protect their bank, sanity and storage space.
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I remember buying used comic books from my brother's friend for anywhere from 10 cents to 25 cents each. He'd sell them after he was done reading them so he could buy more new comics. I remember Richie Rich, but for some reason I can't remember any others, but I know there were a few that I would buy here and there. We had a local little pizza/hoagie shop close by, and we'd go there for penny candy. I'd get 25 Swedish fish, and maybe some Gobstoppers and Wacky Wafers in a paper bag. All candy was one cent per piece!
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Big fan of both candy & comics back in the '80's; these days, can't eat as much candy, but do still collect comics - though it's mainly Collected Editions - i.e., reprints of older comics.
Re: candy, some of my favorite '80's candy was:
Whatchamacallit: great candy bar which mixed chocolate, caramel, and maybe some other things. Don't know if they still make this.
Pop Rocks: I remember these would kind of fizzle in your mouth. I think they got discontinued because of choking concerns, however.
Also have memories of Tab soda - I never really liked this, but it was popular at the time. I get a kick of seeing old '80's movies where people are either drinking this and/or there's a can of Tab in the background. Back around 2003-2004-ish I remember seeing a six-pack of Tab at a Target - I remember buying this, only for nostalgic purposes. However, it still didn't taste that great...
Also remember that terrible dry gum that would come with packs of Star Wars cards & maybe even Garbage Pail Kid stickers. This gum was terrible, and would crack in half very easily. It would also leave "gum stains" on the cards/stickers in the pack - LOL.
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That nasty gum was also in with the baseball cards we bought when I was a little kid. But we still had to chew it!
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HAHA! Good description of that gum in the card packs Pittsbutcghgirl and Nostalgia. I laughed. It would crumble into a thousand pcs. when you bit into it.
"How bout a Fresca?"
Have you seen the modern Jelly Bellys that are disgusting. Its a game called Bean Boozled.
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