Buy candy, make a bet
In a Navy base in Japan during VN, sailors pretty much had free access on and off the ships berthed there, we just couldn't leave the ship in blues until 4 pm. In dungarees we had free run of the base but couldn't leave to go to town. There was an EM snack bar that would served beer with lunch, even if you were in dungarees.
A pimento cheese sandwich was 25c, a bottle of beer was 10c. Whenever a group from my ship stopped by the snack bar after lunch, we left with a table piled high with pimento cheese sandwiches still wrapped in cellophane. Maybe they'd resell them the next day, I don't know.
I was reminded of that kind of pretense today at lunch. I had lunch at a Mexican restuarant in downtown Cushing. On the checkout counter they had a bowl of complimentary hard candies. Right next to the counter was a quarter slide machine where you could "buy" a hard candy for a quarter to get a slide.
I didn't realize it, but after checking the web I guess they're for sale all over the place. I'd never seen one outside Las Vegas.
A pimento cheese sandwich was 25c, a bottle of beer was 10c. Whenever a group from my ship stopped by the snack bar after lunch, we left with a table piled high with pimento cheese sandwiches still wrapped in cellophane. Maybe they'd resell them the next day, I don't know.
I was reminded of that kind of pretense today at lunch. I had lunch at a Mexican restuarant in downtown Cushing. On the checkout counter they had a bowl of complimentary hard candies. Right next to the counter was a quarter slide machine where you could "buy" a hard candy for a quarter to get a slide.
I didn't realize it, but after checking the web I guess they're for sale all over the place. I'd never seen one outside Las Vegas.
posted by Gary Carson at 3:38 PM
2 Comments:
So you had to buy the sandwhich to get the beer for a dime?
I've seen those in Ohio, but only in the arcades where you get tickets, and cash them in for crap.
Beer was a dime always. (this was at a Navy base in Japan in 1968 360 yen to the dollar) You couldn't buy beer before 4 pm unless you also bought food. After 4 pm you couldn't be in the EM club in working uniforms but you could then buy beer without food. The price of the beer didn't change.
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