End of an American Icon?

The other day an American icon met its demise in my neighborhood.

Remember when the neighborhood Quickie Mart parking area got its first coating of asphalt? I do. Remember how in years following the asphalt became studded with bottle-caps that had been crushed into it? I do. Of course, you had to have been born before the eclipse of glass-bottle pop by the popularity of can soda and its successor PET-plastic bottled soda. Those were the days when the cashier kept a cap-lifter behind the counter and offered to open the glass bottle for you. [There are places in Florida that to this day still do that for you if you want to drink on their premises - bottled beer even. But then, it's Florida.]

A convenience store, most recently a Chevron outlet down the road from Clog House Est. 1935, just re-paved the parking area. Buried under a couple inches of new asphaltum are a few hundred bottle caps forever sandwiched between sheets of black pavement. I wish I had taken a photo before they were entombed.

American icon, icon, bottle cap, pavement, Quickie Mart, Simpsons