Recently, I noticed a penny on the ground by my foot, and my thoughts immediately went back to a place in time. I recalled my old hometown of Rockingham, North Carolina and also a time and place where you could actually buy something with a penny. My favorite was  bubble gum, which included a tiny, wax paper comic. A good chew, blowing big pink bubbles and reading a comic about Bazooka Joe's escapades was just a simple pleasure of being a kid and costing only a penny. Did you ever save the comics to send away for that 'Atomic Submarine'? Or did you simply collect them because they were too cool to throw out? You could also go down to your local store of choice and emerge with a big rectangular piece of bubble gum and a baseball card to boot. There was also wax Sugar Lips and Coke bottles. Both contained great tasting sugar water and then you could chew and eat the wax containers. You also could purchase Wax Lips and Coke, both containing great tasting sugar water and wax containers that duplicated their namesake. Again, they only cost a penny and were lots of fun to eat. You would chew the waxy outside of the treat after you finished off the liquid. Even though these treats were only a penny, they were true treats at the time. A penny was something not everyone had!

There were stores like Ms. Sally's, Whites, Otto's Station,  Smith Brothers. These were some of the main candy suppliers of me and my friends youth. They had a good meat counter and lots of candy, many not at all that expensive. I must admit, some of the penny stuff was lousy, but I guess you get what you pay for. There was also the old Dixie Store and then later the A & P, Archie's Red & White, and then the Winn Dixie. Back then it mattered not where you went. Most of the small stores made pretty good money off the school kids before, at noon and after school, and most all of them had accounts in our parents names. Sometimes, if they knew our parents, they would have a little card with our names on it. If my parents had an account at a certain store, then I could put my purchases on their account. Big mistake.

I would head to the grocery before school and afterward too. My friends found out I was generous with my candy and helped me enjoy my newly found gold mine. This lasted until the grocery sent the monthly bill to my parents. I then found out just what it meant to charge something. The only thing I had not understood was that someone had to pay the piper eventually (and in this case it was me). Actually, I paid twice, monetarily and physically, for my indiscretion. I learned my lesson and if I wanted something, I paid for it. It took me a long time to work off my $10 debt to my parents, who found it difficult to realize how one fourth-grader could run up a candy bill that large.

I miss Cokes for a nickel, ice cream for 10 cents a double scoop. I miss watching them bottle the Coke in the Hamlet plant. I also remember one getting a new cardboard Santa with a Coke one year. Santa proclaimed to all: Ice cold, wonderful. I miss the salt rising bread of Quality Bakery, Nickel Nook hamburgers and Louie’s Ice Cream Parlor.

Who can ever forget the Strand and the Richmond Theatre. I loved the Richmond. I spent many an hour in this building. I remember seeing many a movie there. Of course, the cowboy movies were my favorite. I love and saw them all but the ones I remember the most are Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, The Lone Ranger, Davy Crockett and many more. The movie that made the most profound impact on me as a youngster was "Old Yeller". I cried like a baby, but so did everyone else. I loved the popcorn from the Richmond Theater, and it was a nickel a bag too.

I used to love to walk around and check out all the stores downtown, and I enjoyed just walking through and looking at all the wonderful things they had displayed. I loved the basketball games played in our old gym built in by the WPA, and we even had a baseball stadium with box seats. I never missed a Rocket football game, and I never had to pay to get in because Mama was the band director and I remained in the band all the way through school and even into college. Even after I was married I worked with high school bands and never, ever paid to see a high school football game. I couldn't tell you what it cost to get in these games during any era.

The big event of the year was the Lion's Fall Festival at the ballpark. Everyone went to the festival at least once during its run. I made it every night. I found if I could manage to save up enough money to where I could spend about $3.00 a night then I could get $2.00 from Mama and Daddy and then pretty much do and eat as I pleased. What we felt were wild rides then are today, I am sure, considered very tame, but we didn’t know anything else, so were happy with what we had. Not a bad attitude to have, even today. My family was what I consider middle class today, but we felt as if we were millionaires; we had what we needed and that was all we cared to worry about. My Dad was the manager for the Employment Security Commission and my Mom was a teacher all their lives. This meant they were both state employees. I can still remember my Mom saying, "We will never be rich, but we will never go hungry, and we will always have good insurance." That was true then, but teachers today will never ever see the insurance coverage that my Dad and Mom had.

I miss the skating rink and bowling alley on Richmond Road. At one time the name of this establishment was the Rocking- Rolling -Bowling Club. Upstairs was a roller skating rink, and out the big double side doors was a big deck that you could cool off on or have dances. Downstairs was a bowling alley of sorts. As well as I can remember, there were about four or five duck pin lanes, and they had pin setters because automatic pin setters were not even invented yet.

We also had a Coke plant in Hamlet, one of Coke's largest at the time, and later a Pepsi plant in Rockingham. I can still remember going to Walker-Carr Motor Company, the Plymouth, Dodge, Desoto, Chrysler, and the Exclusive Imperial dealership. On Saturdays my Dad would take me with him and there we met with a lot of the men in our town at the door to the garage area.  There we would purchase a pack of Lance peanuts and a small Coke from the old Coke chest style slider machine. We then would play "Travel", talk about the Friday night football game, and just shoot the bull. All the while, the salesmen were inside the circular showroom floor right next to us trying to sell new automobiles.

There was Fox and Bristow Drugs, and no one could ever forget the vanilla and cherry fountain cokes served there.  Right around the corner there was even two dime stores right across the street from each other, Woods and Roses.

These are only just a few of the memories I have of the value of the penny and my old hometown. Not much is left today of my youth, but what is I treasure deeply. I love the history of our fair town. The people of Rockingham, North Carolina was what made it a beautiful and friendly place to live. Many, including my parents, are gone now and I am fast approaching the age when I am history. I only hope that my children enjoy the long period of time I have written these columns and that they will read them frequently when I am gone.