The Latest Addition to Uni Watch HQ

In February of 2023, shortly after E and I began dating, she took me to a vintage shop not far from her house in New Jersey. I was tempted by an old gumball machine, but it was more money than I wanted to spend, plus I didn’t know where I’d put it in my apartment (my rule for this sort of item is that I can’t buy it unless I have some idea of where I’d put it), so I resisted the temptation. But I did take a photo of it — the one shown above.

Over the next few months, I periodically looked at that photo and sort of fantasized about owning the gumball machine. I showed the photo to a few friends (“Look at this beauty that I recently saw in a shop”) and occasionally mentioned it to E (“Remember when we saw that gorgeous gumball machine?”), but I could never quite talk myself into spending the money. After some more time passed, I assumed that the machine had probably been sold. About a month or so ago, E’s daughter and her boyfriend were planning to go to the shop, so I showed them the photo and asked them to see if the machine was still there. They came back a bit later and said it was gone. I was a little disappointed but not surprised, and I figured it was all for the best.

You can see where this is going. Three weeks ago was my birthday, and E presented me with a big, heavy box. Inside, of course, was the gumball machine, which she had purchased a while back. Not only that, but she had shown the machine to the kids before wrapping it, so they knew about it when I asked them to see if the machine was still there at the shop. But they played along. Everyone was in on it!

She also gave me a bunch of M&M’s to put in it. Here’s how it looks:

There are lots of noteworthy details here. One at a time:

• Hershey-ets were Hershey’s version of M&M’s. They were introduced in 1954 but never caught on at candy shops and were removed from mass distribution in the mid-1970s. They still show up as holiday items, however.
• The top decal lists the manufacturer’s address as “Cleveland 11, Ohio.” The “11” was part of the postal zone system, which was used from 1943 until 1963, when the zone system was replaced by zip codes. So the machine was made somewhere between 1954 (introduction of Hershey-ets) and 1963 (final year of postal zone system).
• Most gumball machines open at the top via a removable metal plate, so you remove the plate if you want to refill the machine with candy, or nuts, or whatever. But this one has an unusual design with no top plate. In order to fill the machine, you have to turn it upside-down, unlock and remove the front plate, which releases the base from the glass container, fill the container, put the base back in place, put the front plate back in place and lock it, and turn the whole thing right side up again, all of which is pretty cumbersome (but worth it, of course).
• When E bought the machine, there was no key. So she had to take the machine to a locksmith, who picked the lock and reverse-engineered a new key.
• Like it says on the front decal, it’s one full turn for a penny (which dispenses just two or three M&M’s) or five turns for a nickel. Either way, the machine gives off a very nice mechanical clickety-clack as the handle turns (with thanks to E for her hands-on assistance):

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There was still the question of where to display it. When I first saw the machine at the vintage shop and tried to envision where to put it, my living room mantel wasn’t an option because I had a big TV there. But I reorganized things last fall, so now the mantel is available, and the machine looks good there:

It’s a little dangerous to have a big supply of M&M’s staring me in the face all day long. But like most people, I use cash less and less these days, so it’s not often that I have any pennies or nickels on hand. That should keep me from overindulging — I hope.