First Pack of Cards

[drmondobueno]

I remember seeing a Dentist who was carving the remnant of a tooth to make way for the next generation. Usually at the end of a visit the dentist would offer a sucker but this trip he had a pack of baseball cards in his candy drawer and he said I could have them. I remember the pack was wrapped in clear cello and the top card was a Billy Williams Topps Rookie All Star card. I thought that was cool as hell and did not know who Billy was but he had to be good if Topps said so! Lol!

So it was on. The closest store was the once upon a time New Star market about a mile away up the highway. And I picked up a few ‘ 61 packs before the 1962 rack packs showed. They were a lot of money for a kid with no allowance and lawns to mow were few and far between- it was too hot and the soil was just terrible. So, whenever I got my hands on 29 cents it was a trip to the market in the morning- it would get around 117 in the afternoon, a death walk we would say- and scrounge through the packs to grab one with a Mantle The Switch Hitter Connects...to this day I love the In Action and Leader cards. I think I had 14 Mantle Connect cards at one time.

One of the first things I did when we moved to the garden city of San Bernardino (I prefer El Centro) in 1963 was scope out the local stores, the closest was R &S Liquor on Del Rosa Blvd. the Safeway down on the corner never carried cards that I could find. Seemed to remember the 1963 rack packs went up in price to 39 cents and I thought that was just too much! Did not like the looks of the ‘64 set but later bought as many 1965’s as I could get.

I was the kid who would not flip cards but would trade marbles for cards. Who needed marbles at eleven? A neighbor across the street would take an erasor to his duplicates and draw in phony eyes, noses with boogers and Frankenstein stitches onto faces. I still have one of his cards. Terry Bain was a 20th round pick , I think by Kansas City, in 1972 or 1973, and passed a few years back. I remember his giggle whenever he saw one of these cards.

The things you remember...

[campersmd]

First pack was from the complete 1969 Topps box that I purchased for $1.20 with gift money in 1969. I still have the marked checklists from that box.