When my mom was a little girl, her Daddy often ran Wavaho gas stations. Go Go Go with Wavaho! This gumball machine was in one of those gas stations, and somehow, Mama managed to hang onto it all this time. She gave it to me when the kids were teeny because they loved it so much and wanted to bring it home. It's made of 1/4" thick glass and metal with the words: Northwestern Morris Ill. etched into the back of the glass. It still works, and when I take the top off to refill the candy I have to use the biggest and meanest screwdriver I can find, since most of the tread of the foot long screw holding on the lid has been chipped away.This machine takes only pennies. Isn't that great? We keep a little change holder by the machine for all of our spare pennies. Absolutely every child (and most adults) that come through our door head straight for those pennies to get a handful of whatever happens to be in the machine at the time. Right now it's jellybeans, but it has been filled with everything from M&Ms, Skittles, Runts, Red Hots, Mike and Ike, and candy corn.
7 comments:
You have the most amazing stories.
Write a book, AZ. For posterity.
That is so cool. I remember those huge screws in the top. They were monsters. lol. I remember my dad had MADE a screwdriver once. Yep, made. It was at least a foot long and weighed a ton. But it would fit into were ever he needed it to go in a car engine. Remember this too was back in the sixties when all you needed was a screwdriver, hammer, and the occasional belt to fix most anything under the hood of a car. lol.
I despise the crap they sell in those things these days. Wow, imagine a penny anything! There ARE some things I miss from my childhood......
wow, that is way cool!
I remember getting a penny for gum when moma would go by joe wheeler to pay the electric bill. That machine looked like a goldfish bowl, and you slid a small mechanism from left to right to get your gum. The pink was the worst (pepto bismol), red was cinnamon, green was spearmint, white was peppermint(?), etc. Small rounds of gum :D My kids were on a kick a while back at wally world; they'd beg a quarter for a little neon ninja dude from a machine. They have a small army of them now, and they actually play with them!!!!
Now things of that nature are at least 25-50 cents. You have the best toys.
I don't think I can ever remember a time when candy cost a penny, I think it has always been a quarter or two. That is such a cool little piece of history you have there!
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