Days of Summer

Before plastic bottles, soft drinks (also known as soda pop) came in glass bottles. To encourage their reuse, the empty glass bottles could be returned for a deposit. But even with its bounty, glass bottles could still end up along the roadsides much as their plastic counterparts do today.

As a kid, we would bicycle down the road and collect these discarded bottles, and return them to a grocery store for their reward. Then we would buy candy and baseball trading cards with our newfound wealth.

clap, clap of cards
on the spokes of bicycles . . .
days of summer


— Dan Hardison


Photo by Dan Hardison
Brunswick County, North Carolina


Haibun, Contemporary Haibun Online - April 2013, vol 9 no 1