[GoldenAge50s]

I may seem a bit windy to start, but I want to try & offer some perspective from another Net54 "oldtimer"! I'll be 80 come July.

Right after the war, in 1946, my folks bought a hotel in the small Western NY town of Attica and I grew up, started school & grew my interest in sports from the time I was 6 up to 13 yrs old, living w/in a short bike ride of the prison grounds..

My 1st cards were a few 1948 Bowman at the age of 8, but 1950 Bowman really was when I started collecting in earnest--I still possess the full sets of both '50 baseball & football I put together back then w/ cards from the local Rexall Drug store, candy store & anywhere else that sold them in mainly "penny packs"! I even picked up '49 Bowman "Wild West" cards & still have my "near-set" altho in rather rough shape as I "played" w/ them too much!

On to '51 & '52 Bowman, then came the BIG CHANGE, the appearance of 1952 Topps! Nice, NEW BIG CARDS--we had to have them! I started going to the town dump on my bike to find beer & pop bottles to cash in for card money! The SAD part of this story is the fact that we thought the set was complete @ 250 cards!! NO 3rd series cards ever appeared in my area around Attica, let alone a 4th series! It wasn't until years later I even knew more cards existed!!

In 1953 we sold the hotel & moved to my mother's hometown of Wellsville, NY, home of the "smallest city in the US" to support a Minor League team, in the Class D PONY League (Pennsylvania, Ontario, New York)--also Tony Conigliaro's only Minor Lg stop in 1963, to Red Sox in'64!!

I continued collecting until about 1956, when my interest in High School, 45 RPM record of Elvis, & girls, etc caused my boyhood collecting to basically end!

I was fortunate in one respect. I stored my collection in cigar boxes, shoe boxes, inside whiskey cases and put away in the bathroom closet as I wanted to keep them, being the "pack rat" that I was as a kid! Thank God my mother never threw them out when I left home for college & they stayed there until the '80's when I returned home & "rescued" them from storage!

I am now selling most all these cards on EBay & right here on the BST as I think it is time to let them go!

Thanks for reading my essay--if I have provoked any questions, feel free to ask me via PM/EM.

Fred

PS: My recollection of 1952 Bowman Football is similar to that of Ted, 1st came the "Small" & shortly after came the "Large", w/ BOTH of them on the counter at the same time in many stores! I went after the Small, but when the Large appeared, I went all in as I did w/ the Topps Baseball.

To this day I have my complete set of "Large" completely graded by SGC just as they came out of the packs! Some can be seen on the SGC Registry under Goldenagers 52's, as well as my 1950 FB set & 1953 Topps "Who-Z-At-Star" set (only one registered!) I sold all my Small sometime ago!