As a kid, I remember small gumball-type machines fastened to the steel girders on subway platforms. I remember them on the Lake and Washington St. platforms but they were probably everywhere.

Even as a kid these things seemed gross. They contained candy and gum in bulk and I wondered if they were ever washed. You put in a few cents and received a handful of whatever.

The selection included chicklets, those little, round red peanuts with the skins--and grease! There were other candies too. I wonder what creepy-crawlers feasted on this bounty late at night.

I never saw any hungry commuters use the machines, though. I wonder who talked City Hall into mounting these things; and the Board of Health too.