Want a pop?
Pop, soda pop, soda or soft drink – they all mean the same. All of us remember the long, hot days of summer when there was no air conditioning to go into to get some relief from the ever-present heat. So, we got our relief from the ice cold treat of a cold soda. Some of us went “scavaging” bottles for their deposit value, which was usually two cents. Since the cost of a drink was a nickel, three bottles returned for deposit would get a fresh bit of cooling liquid and a piece of penny candy to boot.
The soft drink has been with us over 100 years. Coca-Cola was originally made with cocaine, thence its name. I can imagine why everyone loved it. It was touted as a cure-all. While it didn’t cure anything, you didn’t really care after drinking a Coke. It is said that it was a particular favorite with Queen Victoria of England. Alas, the good times were over when the government put a halt to anything made with a forbidden drug. Many of the most popular “soft drinks” of the day were victims of this new law.
I have tried to list every soft drink bottled in Salisbury, but I am sure there are others. Many are familiar to you; many are not, since they were produced for such a short time. To qualify, the bottle has to say “Salisbury, Md.” on it. There are many that were bottled by another bottler, so it is impossible to research the label. One of the hardest is Chuk-ker. It has on the bottle that it was bottled by the Chuk-ker Beverage Co., Salisbury, Md., but I have never seen any other reference to or listing for this company. I did find out though a national search that it was primarily a California soft drink and that the clear variety was made in 1942 and the green variety was made in 1945.
A listing of the bottles I have found will be coming next week; I hope you spot your favorite.
There was nothing better than a cold grapette and grilled cheese sandwich. Yum
ReplyDeleteCoke and Pepsi are the only 2 I can recall in SBY,but I realize there have been more.I delivered to a company in Ridgely that made Chocolate Soldiers and Brownies (both similar to Yoo Hoo but a darker chocolate).I also recall a Marvel Beverage Co,but they too were elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteGeorge i was in the antique store in Parsonsburg called the Emporium a few weeks ago and they had lots of old soda bottles.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget RC Cola Bottling Plant that was on Snow Hill Road, just down from the Pepsi Plant.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day all you needed was an RC Cola and a Moon Pie and you felt like a million!
ReplyDeleteWhen we demolished the old Crisfield Times bldg in the 70's I found 5 or 6 1895 Pabst Blue Ribbon bottles in perfect shape under the bldg.Regrettably I gave them away.I realize this is about soda bottles,but I thought that worthy of mention.
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