Free gift with every fourth penny

[Danny]

I used to sit by the beech nut chewing gum vending for ages waiting until the big black handle went round to the straight up position, at this point you put your penny in and got two packets for the price of one.

I really used to get mad when some kid would put his coin in , get his gum, notice where the handle was pointing and pull another penny out of his pocket! Grrr!

That meant hanging around a few yards away trying to look casual until the handle moved around again three times.... and then you maybe got two kids who had a penny each (Oh no.. start again)

[Wil]

Re: Free gift with every fourth penny

That is a cracking memory and an event that hasn't even entered my mind for probably 35 years or more. Thanks!

[Danny]

Re: Free gift with every fourth penny

Been looking online trying to find a pic of one of these machines - no joy so far - can anyone do the business and oblige?

[Danny]

Re: Free gift with every fourth penny

Have found a link that shows a 'YZ' chewing gum machine - not Wrigleys beech nut - and explains just how the free gift operated ( more or less like I told it at the start of this thread)

The Corner Shop. on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


As I recall the slogan for these ones was 'Don't forget your YZ'

[Danny]

Re: Free gift with every fourth penny

Faint memory just popped up!!!

Beech Nut usually came in a pack of four 'ivory-white' pieces of chewing gum.

However I seem to recall for a short while you got it in colours - a blue, a green, a pink and the standard ivory-white

Anyone know anything about this or am I confusing it with something else?

[Kiop]

Re: Free gift with every fourth penny

This reminds me of something similiar that happened when I was a kid.

The gum ball dispenser somehow started to mal-function outside the Chinese chip shop and you could keep twisting the handle around and get gum dispensed without actually putting a penny in it. When I discovered this I went home and got an old Quality Street tin and then returned and put my tin under the vending chute until I had literally 100's of gumballs all free of charge! It was great.

The Chinese chip shop couldn't give a damn, they said the gumball machine didn't belong to them so they just stood peering through the windows at us kids fighting over free gumballs.

Happy days.