The Boys Beer Can Collection: Who says Mom and Dad Were Always Strict?

Us Thompson kids probably all agree that Mom and Dad were pretty strict disciplinarians. Yet there were moments when they definitely gave us some leeway or at least chose their battles. One such occurrence was their allowing David and I (Jonathan), and I believe Brad too to keep vast beer can collections. In the 1970s in Cleveland, OH beer can collections were all-the-craze. Many of my friends were doing it and us younger Thompson boys did not want to be left out, so we began collecting empty beer cans, most definitely in a clandestine way at first. In time we worked to collect cans with exotic shapes, sizes, and brands. We had 7 ouncers, 8 ounce short stacks, 20 and 24 ounce cans, and even 32 ouncers. We had flip tops, pop tops, cone tops, and unopened tops. We had shiny, new, pristine cans, rusted out cans from decades gone by, and everything in between. We had cans from all throughout the country and even some from around the world. Unlike the other kids, our Mom and Dad didn’t drink beer, and we knew they’d never purchase full cans just so we could expand our collection, like some of the other kids folks did. Consequently, we relied on hunting and scavenging to find new exotic cans. We’d ride our bikes around town and on occasion rode to the outskirts of downtown Cleveland in search of rare finds. We searched for new labels on our vacations across country and even stashed them away on our rented RV. I wouldn’t have thought Mom and Dad would’ve let us keep the alcoholic beverage containers, even though they were empty, but they did. It just goes to show that they did grant of more leeway at times then we probably give them credit for, or at least chose their battles. I’m sure Mom and Dad were relieved, however, that we tired of the hobby before we developed drinking problems.