I sometimes marvel at some of your memories Ron. Very good. I recall another byproduct of lots of glass. On many rocky shallow waters on the coasts of Maine and Nova Scotia you would find tons of broken but smoothed out glass in various colors. Blue was less common but not rare. the light Coke green was very common as was the clear stuff. The brown beer glass was common, too.

We were not health conscious in the 60s but hindsight has allowed us to see that plastics have a dark side. Many types have BPSs (BisPhenol A) Which have estrogen mimics was can disrupt the male hormones and cause females to develop earlier and faster with other side effects and harm.

While glass certainly was much heavier and fragile, in hindsight, it was far healthier. I often recall the clinking of bottles being stocked at stores. I remember the funny looking Orange Crush bottles.

The 60s had such a unique set of markers such as rock beach glass, liquids in bottles and assorted other things. But why do we boomers remember every little thing with such tenderness, kids? Cause it was such a beautiful time. We know that now that we lost it. And We would sure like to have it back. But it was great while it lasted.

It has to be admitted that our society has changed many times over the years, since the industrial revolution began in earnest. We just learned to fly in 1908 and biplanes dominated WWI. But WWII, planes were much bigger, faster and even jets come online near the end. The 50s still have quite a few prop planes but jets starting making their rounds. So changes have been rather constant and more and faster changes, too.

But the 60s really seem to get a lot of attention. We are not far from retirement now. We made most of our impact and contributions already. It ought to be interesting as our numbers dwindle as to what will be said about us and our generation. we certainly were lucky to live when we did.

I collect old bottles as a hobby! My main fortay is Whiskey and Gin ottles as well as posion and Imbalming fluid bottles. (Don't ask) Lol! It is hard to find glass containers anymore. I also have a few condiment bottles from the Civil War era. Many times I have cut my foot on broken glass in the Cheseapeake Bay. The bay of course was a dumping ground for tradh until stricter polution regulation came along! And back in the sixties, returning pop bottles (Sorry, Soda Bottles) was a good income for us getting wax lips and baseball cards! For alcholic substances, glass is still better then anything for purity and flavor!

At one of my first jobs in the early 70's, the store had a Coca Cola machine that dispensed six ounce bottles for a dime. Just Coke, no Sprite, Pibb, Mello Yello, or diet anything. Each bottle had the city of the bottling plant embossed on the bottom. When the stock room staff gathered for a drink, we had bets about who's bottle came from the farthest city. The owner of the store kept an empty bottle from Honolulu on his desk.

Plastic bottles and other non glass containers have been a PET (pun intended) peeve of mine for years. So called “Spring Water” in the soft plastic gallons tasted strongly of plastic resin so it was a crap shoot as to whether the bottled water would be drinkable or poured out and then rinsed to be filled at an actual spring (I used to use 64 oz. glass Tropicana Juice containers.)

The tap water in Massachusetts tastes like swamp in most towns so for drinking and coffee bottled water is a must. Due to the many complaints, the PETE (hard plastic containers) started appearing in gallon sizes about 10 years ago (since reduced to 3 liter capacity) which doesn’t taste of plastic but I’m not convinced that some out-leaching of polymer doesn’t occur.

There are a few local bottlers of soda pop in my area which still use 7 & 12 ounce glass bottles for their products but the caps have a plastic washer insert instead of the old cork type. (Remember wearing bottle caps as decorations on t-shirts? Carefully pry the cork from the cap and insert between shirt and cap & voila - instant ads for your favorite soft drink.)

Scott is correct about the hormone mimicry caused by plastics and male amphibians and other hormonally sensitive creatures (almost ALL animals including ourselves – male sperms are weaker) are being vastly outnumbered by females in many environments (which many scientists attribute to plastics leaching into ground and surface water) which should raise a red flag.

The elevated cancer rates (especially breast, testicular and prostate) and other “modern” disease (autoimmune types especially) today correlates to the advent of mass adoption of plastics, and is quite striking. The early onset of menses in young girls (less than 9 years old) maybe related to the estrogen mimicry of plastics as well as hormonal treatment of food animals for faster growth.

The plastic industry is so profitable and entrenched in our society that it would be next to impossible to turn back the tide (which has plenty of plastic flotsam riding on it – in fact about 100 million tons of floating plastic debris covering many square miles of the Pacific ocean has formed an island between Hawaii and Japan. Fish are routinely caught with stomachs full of plastic granules from incomplete breakdown of the seaborne plastic.)

Forget Anthropogenic Global Warming as the big threat facing mankind, the threat to higher life forms from plastics is just beginning to be realized. On the other hand reusing instead of recycling glass containers commercially demands recycling of water for cleaning or they too are an environmental problem.

We used to do something we called The Bottle Trick. We'd drive around town ( Charlotte NC ) and go into various grocery stores ( a different kid for each store so they wouldn't get suspicious ) and casually walk over to the bottle bin. Then we'd go through the checkout line and tell the cashier that we had put a few empty six packs of 32 ounce bottles in the bin. She'd hand us the deposit money without batting an eye ( if I remember right it was about 2 dollars for 3 six packs ) Stealing, I know, but harmless enough, and after a few stores we could fill the gas tank in my friend Buddy's Delta 88. The jig was only good for a summer before they got wise. Doubtful that anyone could get away with it today. Besides, nowadays you'd probably get Tasered for it.

HI ..I WASN'T SURE WHERE ELSE TO WRITE TO U AT SO I KNEW THIS WOULD GET TO U.I WAS RATHER CONCERNED AS I HAVEN'T HAD ANY E-MAILES FROM U FOR QUITE SOME TIME. I WASN'T SURE IF U STOPPED SENDING THEM OR MAYBE U WERE SHUTING DOWN YOUR SITE.ANYWAY WHEN U HAVE TIME MAYBE U CAN DROP ME A LINE I AM SO USE TO SEEING YOUR E-MAILS I FEEL RATHER LOST..ANYWAY HOPE ALL IS WELL..BYE FOR NOW`.........LINDA

Plastic. I hate it!
I recall a time when anything made of plastic or Bak-Lite was considered inferior, and sometimes by association, so was its owner. I guess today we're ALL inferior!

I remember when our town got into the recycling thing. Everybody was murmuring about having to learn how to sort and recycle the household garbage. I would think about all those years when we happily saved and lugged all our soda bottles to the grocers without batting an eye. But when we had to start sorting the garbage, HA! those soda bottles were the one item ominously missing!

Glass is not always reserved for pricy items. I think it's a heck of a note that you can still get a bottle of beer, but not a bottle of milk!

And about your days as a bag boy... I miss those brown paper bags! Nobody can properly bag groceries in one of those floppy smiley-faced plastic bags. Nor do they hold as much. Bagging groceries is a lost art. The well-trained boy knew just how to arrange all those various boxes and cans so no grocery bag ever spilled its contents on the ride home! Not true with plastic grocery bags. I open the trunk of the car and have to re-bag most of the groceries before I can carry them into the house. (From the same car whose knobs, handles, decoration and likely half the motor are all made of plastic.)
You should acquire a case of paper sacks and commence demonstrating your talent at weekend craft fairs. You would AMAZE the young folk these days!

One more comment...
In my day women dreamed of owning dishwashers, but, still, we only used plastic utensils at picnics. Nowadays, most homes have a dishwasher crouching under the kitchen counter, but 'lo, the dining table is set with discardable plastic utensils because *nobody* has time to load and unload the dishwasher!

Hey Burt,

No wonder the Revolutionists choose the tea to toss into Boston Harbor to make a statement about taxation. No big loss to them, as a cup of tea tasted of wretched swamp water anyway!
Now we know... the rest of the story. LOL

Nice memories. I still remember a green RC Cola bottle my Mom used for years to 'sprinkle' the clothes prior to ironing. They sold little sprinkle heads that fit into the bottle via a cork.(Way to recycle, Mom!) The clothes would then be rolled in a tight little bundle and Mom would refridgerate them over night, to be ironed the next day.

Glass baby bottles....