The Rat Patrol.....in color!

One of the joys of the Man's childhood was collecting bubble gum cards.

Batman, The Monkees, Marvel Super Heroes, What's My Job and all the rest.

Back in '66 ABC started airing a WWII drama called The Rat Patrol. What 8 year-old kid could resist the lure of Jeeps jumping over sand dunes while an allied soldier blasted the Germans with a .50 cal. machine gun!

This show was so popular with boys that, years later, one of the Man's motorcycle club mates even had his iron head Sportster named after the show.

Topps released a 66 card set and the Boy dutifully bought as many packs as possible hoping to complete the set. Well, after a few weeks, it all came down to the last card needed, #14. That's when all the cards lined up (!) to teach the Boy another of life's lessons.

The elusive #14

Cantor's bakery was a nice Kosher joint run by a couple of adorable ladies. It was conveniently located between the Man's house and his school. On the way home, he and his "friends" stopped in but the Boy had no cash on him. He'd spent all of his 25 cent allowance already. Seeing the box of Rat Patrol cards just sitting there and being egged on by his cohorts, he looked around and noticed the two ladies were busy with customers and the joint was swarming with kids that just got out of school. Perfect time to pinch a couple of 5 cent packs.

He left the store with his spoils and when he opened them up he was amazed to see one of them was card #14. "What a stroke of luck! I completed the set and it didn't cost me a dime", he thought. He couldn't wait to get home and lay all the cards out on his bed and complete the nine puzzles that made up the backs of the cards.

The scene of the crime (in 1978).

At supper that night the Boy excitedly told his dad that he finally completed his set of cards to which the old-man replied: "Oh yeah, that reminds me, I heard you stole a couple of packs of cards from Cantor's, so after supper we're going there so you can pay them back and apologise". The Boy was dumbfounded! How'd the old-man find out? It appears the Boy checked the grown ups but neglected to look at the kids. Someone saw him and they told their mom who told the Boy's mom who told the old-man. That was the way the neighbourhood mom network was run.

Kid's couldn't get away with anything.

The Boy was loaded into the '65 Parisienne and taken to Cantor's. The old man had him tell the ladies what he'd done and hand over the dime which was advanced to him and now became his allowance for the next month. The embarrassing nature of having to fess up was all the punishment the Boy needed. The Man still has those cards and, as a matter of fact, got one of the stars of the show, Hans Gudegast, to sign one for him. But that's another story for another day.