History

[Tom Carter]

Bruce Day has posted some interesting historical pictures lately and I thought this one may bring back good memories. This is on a building on Front Street in Georgetown, SC.

[Dean Romig]

Scary thing is... I remember 5 cent Cokes with a 2 cent deposit on the bottle... Seven cents sure shot a dime all to blazes :eek:

[George Lander]

We could still buy 5 cent cokes on Charleston Naval Base as late as the 1960s and then bet a buddy $1.00 on the location on the bottom of the bottle. The furtherest away won.

Best Regards, George

[Larry Mason]

I too remember. We still have an old Coke Building in Montross, Va. where they make and distribute Northern Neck Ginger Ale. The Vintage Coca-Cola logo is kept up to date. Nice landmark.
Larry

[charlie cleveland]

i too remember the nickle coke but also remember that a lot of times i did not have a nickle....we have a dr pepper sign in my home town of fulton miss that has there logo on a brick wall...thanks for the memories.. and i believe that nickle coke tasted better than these dollar fifty now do...charlie

[Brian Dudley]

2 cent deposit is pretty heafty for a 5 cent coke. I bet all the bottles got returned.

[Rick Losey]

2 cent deposit is pretty heafty for a 5 cent coke. I bet all the bottles got returned.

Pretty much, except for the one your mom kept to put the sprinkle top on to use when ironing the laundry. Some kid was willing to pick up any that were discarded.

Cleaning and sorting the bottle returns at the little store in town, so that the various bottlers could pick them up, was my first real paying job (at about 12), if you don't count occasional cash for working on a friends family farm,

[George Lander]

We have a local artist, Jim Harrison, located in Denmark, South Carolina who is famous for his Coke artwork. He got his start painting signs & the sides of buildings for the Coca Cola Company. Google "Jim Harrison"

Best Regards, George

[Jim DiSpagno]

Returning soda and beer bottles and gevell gallon jugs for $.20 cents was what kept us in BBs , pellets and .22 ammo from the local hardware store. Also made for a good supply of the 5 cent balsa wood gliders. Rarely spent it on another soda, homemade lemonade and ice tea was for free. Where on earth did the world go wrong?

[Rick Losey]

Returning soda and beer bottles and gevell gallon jugs for $.20 cents was what kept us in BBs , pellets and .22 ammo from the local hardware store. Also made for a good supply of the 5 cent balsa wood gliders. Rarely spent it on another soda, homemade lemonade and ice tea was for free. Where on earth did the world go wrong?

Going back a little more into history, my Dad and his brother used to poke through the gullies on the nearby farms (they all had one for trash) for bottles to sell to the bootleggers during prohabition (they got more for their hooch in a real bottle). Not only did that get them in to the movie theater for the matinee, but they both save up from that to buy their first 22 rifles.

Green before green was cool. :)

[Jim DiSpagno]

As a little kid in the fifties, I can vividly remember an old Italian man with a horse and wagon coming around once a week past my Grandmother's house to pick up anything metal and glass. It would be placed at the curb in wooden crates and the crates were put back in place when emptied. There was a slew of cowbells on the wagon so you knew when he was there and we would run out with carrots for this old horse and water for the old man. This was in Staten Island in the fifties. One of the five boros of NYC, Staten Island had venders with fresh produce, milk, juice, and eggs, bread and cake, potato chips, sharpeners, paper and metal collectors, and fish mongers all coming through neighborhoods in a variety of vehicles from push carts and horse and wagons to modified cars and trucks. to supply a variety of services to their home community. Grocery stores and delis delivered without charge, soft drink companies delivered to homes on a regular schedule and kids helped elderly neighbors with everyday tasks such as weeding, lawn mowing , leaf raking and snow removal at no charge. You were not allowed to take money from the older folks who were just getting by. This built character and respect. Now those tasks are let to the immigrant workers and you pay dearly for them. SHAME ON US.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I can't remember nickel Cokes but I can certainly remember them for a quarter out of glass bottles. When I was visiting my grandmother and aunt in Herrin Illinois we used to go to Bailey's Toy Shop (also the Greyhound Bus Station) to get a strawberry or orange Nehi out of their .25 cent vending machine nearly every day during the summer. On down the road in Energy Illinois was The Polar Whip with their .10 cent hamburgers and .25 cent cherry Cokes (over shaved ice and made with real cherry syrup while you waited).

I still think of sitting in my Aunt Eva's kitchen while she was making dinner (lunch).
I used to go between her house and my grandmothers during the summer vacation visiting for a week at a time each place. They didn't have air conditioning so we'd have a big rattling brass blade fan blowing on us at the table. Would be hot as blazes in there with the gas stove (the kind you lit with a match) going while she cooked. She'd get in her ancient Philco gas refrigerator and get me one of those big tall Cokes to drink with my food. The best lunch was either her fried salmon patties or fried squirrel that had been put through the pressure cooker for a few minutes to make it more tender. She'd sing a little off key wordless tune as she cooked, I can still just hear it like I was there yesterday.

Uncle Phillip would come in from the garden with his shirt off to eat with us. He was the first person I ever saw with tattoos. He'd gotten them "working for the state" during prohibition while doing a stretch at the P Farm for bootlegging. He still wore a pencil thin mustache and smoked King Edward cigars from the drugstore. I think the first cigar I ever smoked was filched out of the box by his chair.

I still have his old Elgin nickel silver pocket watch and carry it on occasion. Big as a turnip and heavy too, he'd had it down from his father.

Funny how thinking about drinking a Coke out of a glass bottle can make you remember so many things. It's hot here in Michigan today, makes me think of those hot summers in Southern Illinois. They're long gone I'm sad to say, I sat in that kitchen the last time with the both of them when I was about 13 years old.


Destry

[Bruce Day]

When I bike through Iowa in a few weeks, I'll remember what you fellows like and will concentrate on focusing on Americana and life beyond Wal Mart. That's the nice thing about a bike.....you move slow enough to see things. Too bad I can't post a scratch and sniff for the hog farms or bring to you the sound of an old fashioned hit and miss engine running an ice cream maker.

[Brian Dudley]

I am a younger guy and personally know nothing about much contained in this thread from first hand. But I can say that times were different and in most ways better. I do firmly believe that the 1950's was the best era in the last century for this country. In more ways than 1.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I guess I never thought you might be younger than me, I'm 42 and the story I told would have been mid 70's.

DLH

[charlie cleveland]

i remember an old gent who said he would quit drinking cokes if they ever got to costing a quarter...old gent had to eat his words cause he kept drinking and buying them till they reached 50 cents...he past own at the 50 cents mark... but heh i said id never give a dollar for a bottle of water but some 10 years or better i was at a car show in alabama and there was only beer and water for sale there...well the beer was 50 cents and the water was a dollar...well i didnot drink and i sure hated to give a dollar for a bottle of water but after about 1 hour later i broke down and gave a dollar for that bottle of water..heh it really was worth the dollar and then some... but give me a nickel coke anyday... charlie

[chris dawe]

I'm on your heel's Destry at 39 ,and I too have vivid memory's from the early 80's of getting off the school bus in late fall ,running the last half mile to the house to grab my older brother's 12 bore single barrel topper & pulling on a pair of wicked heavy Black diamond knee rubber's...
Then it was on my old rickety ,hand me down ,found in the ditch 10 speed to Morgan's store,where a Canadian dollar would by me a Coke ,a foil bag of Hostess ketchup chip's ,a big Turk and a handful of jelly candy ...I was all of 12 I geuss ,not legal to carry a gun... but in my home town I would walk through the store with it broke over my arm ,a full belt of shell's ,and no one ,not a soul ever questioned my intent, the only query ever was "How'd ya do yesterday me son ,any bird's on the go ? rabbit's ?" (I'm from Newfoundland;) )

There was a gully we had to skirt to get to where the the bird's and rabbit's were, beaver gully we call it...every shaggin time I rounded the last little cove up came a lone duck ...and every time with out fail I would up gun and miss,how many shell's in christ's name did I throw at that duck with not a feather cut !!!

I alway's imagined he was the same old bugger year after year ,so wise ,so tough, and wicked enough to keep me out of range time after time.


Come to think on it,he had sharp teeth too ...or was it horn's ? none the less he was awful big:whistle:

[Kenny Graft]

1965-1970 ish I remember 10 cent cokes in the 7oz bottles and 5 cent hershey bar ...both items are availible today same size but 5.89 for six pack of cokes and 1 dollar to 150 for a hershey bar....gas was 27 cents to 34 plus cents. two bergers two fries and a med coke was 1 dollar at the golden arches..(-: The fries were cooked fresh and the beef had no green slime added! 65 impalla SS was about 2250.00 NOBODY WAS ON WELFARE...families helped family and we all new who are dad was!!! thanks all SXS ohio....................................

[Angel Cruz]

I was ten when the family move from Puerto Rico to The Bronx, NY in August of 1968. Being dirt poor while living in Puerto Rico I remember fighting with a friend over a penny on the ground. So there was no money for a coke or any drink. The reason we fought for that penny was because we could get five pieces of candy at the store. And belive me that was big.
Now back to NY. The building we moved into had a liquor store on the first floor. The owner of the store also owned the whole bulding and I remember my father taking me to the store to meet Al. Somehow I came out of there with a Saturday job cleaning and dusting and restocking the shelves with liquor bottles. I still remember when at the end of the day he payed me 2 bucks. I could not believe my eyes, 2 bucks. I lived in the fifth floor and let me tell you I never ran up those stairs faster than I did that day. I scared the heck out of my mother as I busted my way into the apartment. I was yelling "Mom Mom this is the best country in the world. I just made 2 buck. It was amazing one day I'm dirt poor in Puerto Rico and the next I'm earning 2 buck a week. What a country!!

[greg conomos]

The good old days were good but not as great as we all remember.

As for WalMart, I generally avoid going there, but it's easy to pile blame on them without really looking at the big picture. WalMart was one of the leaders in a few areas that help customers. For example, they were leaders in allowing returns. I clearly remember in the 70's when you bought something it was yours. Mom n' Pop generally would not take returns or gave you the third degree if you did try to return it. WalMart? They couldn't care less if you returned it. I don't like people who abuse return policies but sometimes you just buy something in error.

Home Depot? For the first time in my life I could go there and expect to find enough of a product to actually finish the job. Mom n' Pop's hardware store? They'd have a bin with three 1/2 conduit hubs, one of which was missing the nut - and I needed 12. Go back a week later - they'd be down to 2.

And Mom n' Pop stores seldom actually had people working there who knew much more than the dopes at Home Depot. About 2 years ago I went to Mom n' Pop's because I needed a piece of 1/8" iron pipe threaded. They have a Ridgid threading machine...I can run those all day long. The guy there, about 50 years old, assured me it was impossible to thread 1/8" pipe - only 1/4" and bigger could be threaded. I asked him how 1/8" pipe got threaded and he informed me 'they can only do it in factories.' I asked him why they had a set of dies marked 1/8" sitting right there and he said they came with the machine but didn't actually work. I decided to give up while I was ahead and went to HD where they threaded the pipe for 50 cents and 3 minutes.

[Brian Dudley]

Walmart was the first company to pioneer the 100% "Consignment" idea. Walmart owns nothing in their stores until it crosses the scanner at checkout. And only for that split second do they own it. Their major benefit is the reduced inventory holding costs that go with that.
So, for returns, they don't care much because it jsut goes back into their vendors inventory.

And Destry, I'm afraid I am quite a bit younger. But feel older every day.

[George Lander]

Since we're reminiscing, I remember going to the movie on Saturday morning with a quarter. 9 cents would get you in the movie, 10 cents for popcorn & a nickle for M&Ms or a candy bar. Wild Bill Elliott, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers & Dale and sometimes Johnny Weismuller as Tarzan. THEM WAS THE DAYS!

Best Regards, George

[James R. Black]

In the late forties coke was three cents a bottle in the machine at the gas station next door.It was in a smaller bottle than the nickle bottle that they sold later.That same station sold shorts longs and long rifles for 35, 45 and 55 cents and shotgun shells were 3,25 for Peters hi velocity.We never wore shoes in the summer and our bikes took us those places to far to walk.Every small store had its own brand of guns you could buy with the proceeds from your paper route.No one had no trespassing signs and kids with guns was an accepted thing.I wonder how there could be so many changes in such a short period of time.

[Brian Dudley]

Since we're reminiscing, I remember going to the movie on Saturday morning with a quarter. 9 cents would get you in the movie, 10 cents for popcorn & a nickle for M&Ms or a candy bar. Wild Bill Elliott, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers & Dale and sometimes Johnny Weismuller as Tarzan. THEM WAS THE DAYS!

Best Regards, George

So even back them the popcorn was more than the movie. :corn:

[Gary Carmichael Sr]

George, I too spent many a saturday morning in the old center theater, .25 cents got you in, a drink, and popcorn! but that was a lot of money then, down south people working in the cotton mills or furniture did not make but 75 cents an hour in the mid fifties. Both my mother and father worked, mom two jobs, sold avon at night, dad would take here to the area where her route was and she would walk and carry that big bag of cosmetics they would have a certain time that dad would pick her up, you sure cannot do that today! wonder what a D grade parker cost then? 100.00 ? Gary

[George Lander]

I forgot about Randolph Scott, Lash LaRue, Gabby Hayes, Smiley Burnett, The Lone Ranger & Tonto, etc. Everything down South was segregated then. Whites downstairs, Blacks in the balcony. One Saturday when I was about 6 or 7 I wore my pride & joy WW1
Aviator's cap to the movie. Leather on the outside, fleece on the inside with metal sound tubes sticking out. Some older bigger guy behind me stole it at the end of the movie & ran outside. A black kid, coming out, chased him down & returned it to me.

Funny the things that you remember from 65 years ago!

Best Regards, George

[Bob Roberts]

COCA COLA - The last Coke in a glass bottle I ever drank was from the nickel machine in the ROTC building at The Johns Hopkins University in April of 1965 when I reported in to take my commissioning oath as a 2nd Lieutenant of Infantry, USAR after receiving formal notification of graduation. A year after that I was drinking Rum and Cokes in the officers’ club of the 1/9th Infantry (Manchu), 2nd Infantry Division, located just south of the DMZ, Republic of Korea. And a year after that I was drinking free Cokes in aluminum cans (when we could get them) as XO of 4/9th Infantry (manchu), 25th Infantry Division somewhere in the Delta southwest of Saigon, Republic of Vietnam. Several years later I experienced a period of depression and withdrawal when New Coke was introduced and they retired the original formula. Lately my doctor and the media all keep telling me I’ve got to quit drinking Diet Coke as it works against my losing weight... Yea sure!

RECYCLING - My company is located in Philadelphia and all my employees recycle - white paper, newspaper, cardboard, glass, tin cans and plastic - except for the plastic drink bottles which can be redeemed for 5 cents each. Several times a year my brother drives up to visit friends in Vermont and each trip he fills up the back of his car with 33 gallon trash bags full of empty soda bottles which he redeems somewhere up there. He says it covers his tolls and before gas skyrocketed it would pay that too, both going and coming back - now not so much, but still worth doing.

[Dean Romig]

I wonder what a D grade Parker cost then? $100.00 ? Gary

Yup Gary, about that. I have a Hunting and Fishing magazine from the mid-thirties with an ad for a used D Grade .410 for $100.00 :shock:

[George Lander]

Bob: THe Birth Father of my oldest son, Billy, who we adopted through Catholic Charities as an infant was a Manchu. He was killed April 8th., 1967 somewhere South of Saigon in a place called Gia Dinh Province. His name was PFC. Terry Anton, 25th Infantry 4/9, from Florence, South Carolina. He was in country exactly three months.

Best Regards, George

[calvin humburg]

Bruce, I know the smell of Pigs had them for 4H. Pigs will always make you smile. Hit and miss motors are very neet would like to have one and a icecream churn would be a great combo.

I sorted returnables at Pepsi when I was going to Votec. That job is no fun. Best to you fellows ch

[Carl Brandt]

A memory from my youth of returnable bottles...

My first real job, which I got just after getting my drivers license in the late 60's, was sorting the returnable soft drink and beer bottles in a grocery store. We had these large "bottle buggies" that the cashier in the front office would put the returns in after refunding the deposit. I would push the buggies back to the bottle room and pull it halfway through the door and proceed to sort all the various brands and sizes into wooden flats for sodas and the distributer's cardboard boxes for beer. At the end of a busy week I would have that room stacked 8 to 10 feet high with just a narrow aisle down the middle. One day I reached into the bottle buggy and grabed ahold of 2 six-packs of longnecks and as I pulled them up, about a dozen of the biggest durn cock-roaches you have ever seen go running up my arms. I'm talking South Florida roaches about 2" long! I broke both six-packs on the ceiling of that bottle room and got out of there, over the buggy, before the glass hit the floor. Those were the days!

Still don't like cock-roaches.

[Angel Cruz]

:rotf:
................:rotf:
I can just imagine it. I thought NYC roaches were big till I moved to Florida.

[calvin humburg]

Carl, So you probably used the two bottle in a hand method moving 4 bottles at a time one day I was sorting didn't notice the top was broke off still have a scar between my pinky and ring finger. Put band aid on and kept on sorting. Today they would probably call the amblance. he he