ALL My Beer Cans

Hey People...I guess everyone wants to know what made that young mind of Jim O'Leary click, way back when...Well, of course, sports, no doubt, was beyond huge, collecting baseball cards and Wacky Packages and such, were very cool...but I wouldn't call it an obsession...

Now, on the other hand, when 4th Grade rolled around, and I walked down about 15 steep, dark steps into the large basement at Eddie Bar's house...and saw his enormous beer can collection....boom...right there, I knew I had to get my own BEER CAN COLLECTION going...

There, me & Eddie B and some buds like Slim and Moodo and Johnny Murph and Neil and Marty...oh yeah, Fitz too...all built like toothpicks, bounding down those steps, after playing some brutal basketball in Eddie's backyard court, checking out Eddie's beer can collection which stretched across about a 25 foot glimmering, colorful sea, of aluminum, about 4 stacks high...maybe even further. Yes, it was incredibly, mind-blowing...

So my adventure of collecting began, as Eddie just gave me a few extra rare, kick-ass, beer cans, he had piled up, somewhere in his basement, whispering to me...Don't let my brothers find out, ever, or they will kill me...!!!...

I ran back home and instantly, cleared off a corner in my bedroom, on top of my desk, where both me and my brothers, were supposed to study...(at least they were)...but our minds would instantly wander to the stack of beer cans, 2 feet in front of them, stacked up so high...

I could hear the sizzling sound of popping open a brewski and all the various funky flavors of malty brews...as I glared & stared with delight...

What were those inital illustrious cans...???...

Possibly an Iron City Pittsburgh Steeler Can that had a 1975 team photo emblazoned across it, with legends like Terry Bradshaw and Lynn Swann, Franco Harris, Rocky Bleir, Jack Lambert, Mean Joe Greene...all looking back at me...

Other rare cans, were the gold/black label, Budweiser Malt Liquor, so rare and so cool looking. Old Frothingslosh, was a hoot, with a large buxom, beauty queeen, lady from yesteryear, on its label...The little 8oz cans of the metallic green Rolling Rocks, a favorite, of mine, also...

I could go on and on, because my beer can collecting became an obsession, overnight, and I had to keep reminding my family members, to keep an eagle eye out, for any cool cans...Even my Dad, had a bit of fun, because, my Mom, of course, would stumble upon a display of rare beer cans, on one of her always famous, shopping jaunts.

And these little aluminum gems, were still filled with lots of luscious beer...yummy, yummy beer, so my Dad would drink a few of these rare beauties, in our basement, as we were watching some sports or old black & white, 1930's Popeye cartoons, (his favorite growing up) on our old Zenith color TV...

I can even remember my Dad, anxious to try a can of Knickerbocker beer, from the East Coast, because my Dad said, he drank some of that stuff, back while he was in service, in World War II.

I think my Dad, even slightly delved into his past, a thing he never did, as he took a sip after sip, just harking back to a bygone era...Even on a rare out-of-state trip for a family wedding up around Detroit, there I was, digging thru dirty garbage cans, looking for cool beer cans, like the popular Rolling Rocks, up around eastern Michigan...

I'm sure some of my brothers and sisters can remember their contribution to my collection began to take off and rise up to around 150 rare and everyday cans...I do remember my sister, Joan, coming home with a bunch of Naragansett beer cans which was made in Rhode Island. Instantly. I grabbed the sack of a dozen cans, and hustled out our door, ready to trade them with my rabid, rowdy, bunch of friends...

Digging along the railroad tracks, in the hot sun, with Neil Krull and Marty Eck, up around 79th Street was awesome, too, because we'd find old, ancient rusty cans beyond compare, expensive cans of cone-top Strohs...amidst the meandering, menacing, wild grass, that stood high and wild, all over the place...behind the Firestone tire facility...

These damn frightful relics, older than old, maybe from the 50's, we'd come across, were as rusty as can be, holes and dents, gnarled into them, just a smidgen of the old label still recognizeable. Evilly wicked cans, nobody in their right mind, would even touch, but that didn't stop us...

And also, on Sundays, the flea market was open at our local drive-in theatre, next to the Zayre, off 75th & Western. The beer can craze was in full force there, with all kinds of vendors, piling up rare cans, along their displays as we wandered like misceivous fools, all about...

Marty even had a bit of flair, stealing a few cans, now and then, because he just couldn't go home, without those rare commodities, sometimes. He just had a whimsical knack for devilish things...

It truly was a huge obsession for all us kids, as you can tell and I believe all of us, young and old, back in the mid 70's got a huge chuckle, from adding some kind of crazy new can, every so often...Sure, the John Travolta craze was in full gear, disco blaring away, movies like Paul Newman's SLAPSHOT or the ever scary, CARRIE, horror classic, was up on the screen, at our theatres...

Nobody was finding some bizarre correlation between teenage drinking & beer cans, yet. It was as harmless as beanie babies or Cabbage Patch dolls or even Wii consules...

Sadly, as the 80's crept in...inevitably...out of the blue...we eventually sold the illustrious 86th Street house...

Such a sad, sad day for me, as I packed up my beer can collection, holding back tears, ever so gently and ever so slowly, placing these momentos into a huge cardboard box, to be set aside and sold at our garage sale, we held, days before we left the 86th Street, South-Side, for good...

My mind just wandered back to the exact moment, I had found each memorable beauty, each can a treasure of sorts, with a little bit of fun and adventure attached to each and every one...

Today, sadly enough, beer can collecting, is almost gone...Only my good friends, Karla & Eric, still have a giant can collection...in their basement on the North-Side on Warrick Avenue. Karla, so, so proud, she had kept her childhood collection, up to snuff...

And me and Eric and Karla, can't help laughing at how crazy all of those cans, made us go nuts, back when we were young kids...Just a hoot and just a great, great time...looking upon those cans...stacked behind their bar...for everyone to oooh and ahhh...over.

Maybe, it lost its charm, to some, but to me, I'd stack up a beer can collection, somewhere, someway, in a second, if I had room somewhere, in our Lake House, in Williams Bay, today....

Hey....Those were MY & all us kooky 70's kids, delicious, nutritious, beer cans...!!!...

We drank em'...We stuck em' up in stacks aplenty...and we looked foreward to stacking them all the way up to the ceiling...if we could...and we nearly darn did...

Each and every one of those beverage containers...gnarly or pristine...dented or faded, obscurely rare or common as common gets. It was cooler than cool, no two ways about it. All us kids from then, would agree double, maybe triple, with those sentiments...

We were a loud and proud bunch...even us quiet ones...back then, whenever, the topic of beer cans...arose...And we grew up with an extra-special, greater appreciation for all the various cultures & places, stretched across our nation...and even across our globe...wherever BEER was BIG...

Fosters from Australia...Sapporro from Japan...LaBatts from Canada...Dos XXX from Mexico

That's almost everywhere you go...naturally...to us...Exploring our notion...that beer brought everyone together... forever...

I am getting a bit thirsty...reading all this...pondering all of the compelling aspects of BEER CAN COLLECTING...I guess I'm still a wee bit obssessed. Why not be...???...

It was alot of fun...and I'm still looking for the entire 14 collector can series of Scmidtt beer of Philadelphia that was impoosible to attain...Betcha it cost a fortune on e-Bay nowadays...

So now you know...a little more...a funny, funny, forgotten fragment of history, a neat little nook of nostalgia, locked away, from so long ago...which you all can laugh and laugh about...because our innocence & stupidity...were in abundance back then, for sure...