MY VERY FIRST "VINTAGE" CARD, AND I WAS HOOKED

Way back in 1979, when I was ten-years-old, I was playing in the schoolyard in my Bensonhurst, Brooklyn neighborhood when some kids were ripping open trash bags that were dumped nearby.
Typical delinquent kids that we were, we were flinging stuff around, punting boxes, etc, when something caught my eye, it was what turned out to be a 1973 Topps card of former catcher Carl Taylor, shown here:

Why is this a big deal?
This was literally the very first “old” card I ever saw. That is, the first card I ever saw that was NOT from a year I bought cards, which I started in 1976 when I was seven.
It boggled my mind.
In the days before card magazines, or even the internet, unless you had an older brother, etc, you were not going to just come across older cards.
I grabbed the card and instantly adored it, walking home and putting it with my other cards of the past few years.
My friends, I was HOOKED!
I knew right there that I had to try and find “older” cards to collect, and that year I began something I’m still doing today, collecting vintage baseball cards.
I still have this card somewhere, stashed away with what I consider “commons”. But I realize I have to find it, dig it out, and frame the bastard so I can always remember when this obsession of mine began, 40 years ago.
To this day I can still tell you what my “first” cards of ever year were as I started hunting them down in 1979, 1980.
I remember getting a 1963 Bob Bruce, a 1960 Johnny Callison, a 1966 Bob Henley, 1970 Hank Allen and Jack Aker, a small stack of 1971’s that included Dick Drago, Dick Such and Tommy John, and the list goes on and on.
What a ride!
Any of you out there have a similar story? Would LOVE to hear it!

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1972 CARL TAYLOR

Here’s a “not so missing” 1972 card for former catcher Carl Taylor, who suited up for the World Champ Pittsburgh Pirates by season’s end in 1971:

Taylor, who came over to the Bucs on September 3rd of the ‘71 season after being purchased from the Kansas City Royals, appeared in seven games, batting .167 with a couple of hits over 12 at-bats.
He began the season in Kansas City, though only appearing in 20 games on the year, collecting seven hits there over 39 at-bats for a .179 average, giving him a combined ..176 batting average for the year.
He’d find himself right back in Kansas City for the 1972 campaign, where he’d play the last two years of his MLB career, seeing his last Big League action in 1973, appearing in 69 games for KC.
He finished his 6-year MLB career with a .266 average based on his 225 hits in 846 at-bats, spread out over 411 games between 1968 and 1973.
On a personal note, Carl Taylor was the very first “old card” I ever got, finding him just laying there in the schoolyard in 1979, my mind blown by seeing a card design I had never seen before since I started collecting as a seven year old in 1976.
Sure, I’d seen some 1975’s at my cousin’s house, but I had never seen any card of any year that was older than that. So to see that nice, clean layout, unlike anything issued by Topps since 1975, was mind blowing. It was the first spark of any kind that started my life-long craze of hunting down “old cards”.
Soon after, I found an Antique Store on the other side of the neighborhood that was the mother-load, large bunches of commons rubber-banded together for 75 cents (70’s), and smaller bunches of commons for $1, of which I distinctly remember 1962’s.
On top of that, I will always remember the 9-pocket sheets hanging in his window with Mantle, Campanella, Maris, Jackie Robinson. 1959, 1956, 1958.
Sadly those cards were about $5-$10, and my mom was NOT shelling out that kind of coin for “stupid baseball cards”. Remember, this was 1979/1980.
Incredible memories some 40 years later!