I was 11 in 1980 and my Mother worked at Sears at the local mall. When I was out of school for Summer or Christmas, I would go to the mall with her and I would play video games.
One of the places I shoveled massive amounts of quarters into was the Woolworths game room. It was in the back of the store. While walking quickly to the game room one day, I noticed a box in the candy section that had some kind of football design on it.
Being a fan, I stopped to see what it was. Saw they were football cards and bought two packs. Went outside the store to one of the mall benches and opened the packs. In the first pack, I got a card of Tony Hill who played for my favorite childhood team the Cowboys. I was hooked. I then took all of my video game $ and bought football cards that day.
Shortly after that, my Mom started buying me two packs of cards everyday that she worked at the mall. She did that for 6 years when I took a break from collecting. It's one of the great memories I have of my Mom who is no longer here.
Then in the summer of 1981, while at the local flea market with my Dad, there was a guy there who had older cards I had never seen. Mantle, Aaron, Mays, guys from the 50's I had only heard of but never saw cards of. I plopped down $5 for my first vintage purchase, a 1959 Topps Yogi Berra. Two weeks later I paid $6 for a 1965 Topps Hank Aaron. Shortly after that I paid $9 for a Mike Schmidt RC and when I showed it to my Dad, he thought I was crazy for spending that kind of money for "old cardboard".
Like many, collecting cards was one of the great memories I had as a child.
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