The Lessons I Learned from a Gumball Machine

In 1962, there was a hardware store right down the block from my uncle’s grocery store, in the itty-bitty South Carolina town that’s the inspiration for Last Chance. And right outside this hardware store was an old-fashioned gumball machine. This particular gumball machine held treasures beyond bubble gum. Inside its clear glass bubble were plastic capsules that contained rings.

Fabulous rings made of shiny gold plastic with shiny red and green gems.

Oh, they were wondrous, those rings, and I...