No. Not that.

And not saving as in hoarding. Not that either.

I am talking about the saving of something in hopes of something greater.

No. Not that either.

Nothing that abstract … or honorable … or obsessive.

Well, maybe obsessive. I suppose it could get to that point.

Today I was just looking at something here on the desk. Wrappers. And my mind wandered as it sometimes does.

I suppose originally there were the saving of some kind of proof-of-purchase. In my childhood people were saving wrappers and whatnot. Promises on the back of comic books for impossible things.

Before that there was the lure of premiums promised on the radio. A Tom Mix Decoder Ring perhaps?

Those of us who grew up in the ’30s and ’40s were motivated to obtain premiums offered by food makers who sponsored radio programs. Their offers didn’t only promote products; they also developed youngsters’ sense of personal hygiene, patriotism, and civic responsibility.

The purpose of the radio premium was twofold: (1) it established a listening audience, thereby promoting the programs’ popularity, (2) it increased the use of the product to assure continued sponsorship. Interestingly enough, the two seemed forever intertwined.

Nothing like a developed sense of personal hygiene, patriotism, and civic responsibility.

So it was all a corporate scheme? Something to get us to buy things? Imagine that.

As a child, we saved Green Stamps … and Yellow Stamps … and Plaid Stamps.

These were ultra-sticky stamps backed with horrible tasting … probably toxic on some level … glue which were given at the local grocery stores and saved in cheap paper booklets.

This was all so that you could later trade them in for some future undervalued goodies.

And to be honest, I don’t remember ever getting anything from them. Just saving them. And licking pages and pages of stamps.

If we were really, really good we could be allowed to lick the bazillions of stamps and place them in the books.

Those were the days.

And then there were box tops … and General Mills points … and … well, you get the picture.

In more modern days, there were soup labels. Campbell soup labels. For education. Long after my children had outgrown elementary school label drives, and the ugly divorce intervened, I was still collecting Campbell soup labels.

Or as an ex-partner of mine called them “little scraps of paper you are hoarding.”

Pot … meet kettle.

But I digress.

Flash forward to later days … High School and College and beyond. And we collected the cardboard candy coins … scraps of cardboard in candy. Boyers Mallo-Cups to be specific.

With 500 coins you got a box of candy.

That actually did happen. I have never sat down and figured the math of it all.

There was some discussion recently as to whether they still have these coins in the candy.

They do.

Not that I would know personally. A friend told me. I have outgrown this kind of thing.

OK, except for the ice cream wrappers. Like the ones on my desk.

At the local custard stands in the area, they give you ice cream cones with wrappers around the bottom.

With ten coupons you get a free small cone.

I save.

I have saved.

I have redeemed.

Hey, free ice cream? What’s not to love?