Friday, October 12, 2007

Gambling with another guy's coupons

I had a big time flashback to my childhood this morning.

When I was sick and missed school, which was rare, we would go to the Dr's office. Then we would hit Hilley's Pharmacy for whatever was ailing me. THEN, and only if the Dr decided that there was real sickness AND mom had heard a minimum amount of whining, we would get to go to Mott's 5 and Dime.

One of my favorite things at Mott's was the mystery grab bag. $.25 or maybe $.50 for a little brown paper sack that was stapled shut. Sometimes a small toy, sometimes candy. Seldom worth the price. But always awesome! If I remember correctly, they even had specific boy and girl bags...

Flashing back to before my flashback to my own childhood...

The Talker and I headed down to the Pediatrician's office because of his nasty sounding cough. Grabbed a 'scrip for some antibiotics and we headed out. No shots. No hassles.

After that we went over to Toys 'R Us and planned to cash in a coupon for a free Hot Wheel. The Talker took .0000043 seconds to find the car he wanted. A Brown Buick!?! Hey, at least it is a Grand National. WITH a pop up hood, thank you very muchly.

As we were wandering to another part of the store, I noticed the Hot Wheels Mystery Car. Hanging there with all of the cool palm sized hot rods. Just calling our names.


Notice, the plastic is black, so you can't see the car. Thus the gamble.
It might be a crappy car or worse, one you already have.

The Talker latched on to the idea of picking up a mystery car to go WITH his freebie Buick. It was great fun listening to him guess what kind of car might be inside. His best guess, "a golded hot rod with green windows and a big ol' motor sticking out". And even though it wasn't that one, the gamble paid off. The boy got a cool car out of the mystery box.

A rocking early model VW Bug Convertible

With the coupon, we spent $1.07. At Toys R Us. Walked out of there with more than $18 in change from a $20 dollar bill. So I think that makes us the biggest winners of the day!

Now we are moving on to convert the living room rug into Pirate Lands. So we be seeing you buccaneers later. Arg!

3 comments:

Oda Daddy said...

Awesome find! I used to have hundreds of Hot Wheels when I was a kid. Maybe I should starte collecting again.

-OD

www.dearspike.com said...

I remember the 50-cent brown bag grab bags! Better than a prize in a cereal box. The best things is life might not be free -- but they can be cheap!

Love Bears All Things said...

Memories!
I was ill quite a lot in childhood. Allergies,but we didn't know about those then. My favorite thing to get was a Golden Book. I loved to have them read to me and later when I could, to read them to myself.
You brought back some memories with the 5 and 10.
I haven't seen these mystery cars but I love the Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. I always have and will look to see what interesting new one I might buy for my little people.
Mama Bear