In the top of my closet at home is a round oatmeal-style cardboard container with a lid that holds one of my prized possessions as a child collector of interesting historical items.
When I was growing up in Corpus Christi, Texas as a child, there was a grocery store chain that was issuing to customers small plastic figurines of each American president.
I don’t remember which store chain it was, or if they issued the figures to customers each week that spent a certain amount of money with them or whether my mom just purchased them each week outright, but I thought they were the coolest thing. Each one had their name and the years they served as U.S. President.
I was interested in history even back then and each time I brought home a George Washington, John Quincy Adams, or Teddy Roosevelt my curiosity drove me to the encyclopedias we had…the old-school book kind.
It was fascinating to read up on who these people were, where and how they grew up, and what they did as president. I collected them all the way up to the president of the day, which was Richard Nixon, and then the stores quit carrying them.
I could swear I used to have Nixon, but going through what I have, I could not find him anywhere…bummer. A historic hole since he was the only president to resign in office.
They are definitely collector’s items, but likely not worth much, just valuable to me.
When I read about these presidents, I read about their background, accomplishments, challenges, and even some of their failures, but it exposed me to what leaders do and the history with which they’re associated.
It also showed me they were not perfect…they had warts too, but they served in the Office of the Presidency which is a history-making position deserving our attention and our respect whether we agree or adamantly disagree with the person in the office.
I wish I could remember what grocery store chain it was that carried these miniature presidential statues. It had to be one of three that my mother visited regularly…HEB, Handy Andy, or Piggly Wiggly. Those were the prominent supermarkets there in that coastal city.
I wish she was still around to ask her. She had no idea how much fun that was to me at the time and what it meant to her eight-year-old boy.
Steve Linscomb is a former television news reporter with more than 25 years experience in a number of small and large U.S. TV markets. His focus is in the development of the craft of fiction writing, more specifically historical fiction in both reading and in his current personal writing efforts.
He lives in San Antonio, Texas.
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