1940 - 1950 Soft Drinks

AS I grew up during WW2 we didn't have sodas or candy. Sugar was rationed so none of that stuff was available. But beer bottles had a deposit, a penny for small & a nickle for quarts. So my buddy Joe & I prowled the ditches along side the roads for bottles. We would trade them in & could buy 22 shells for 50 cents. 16 gauge shot shells were $1.25. this was in 1944.
 
Nesbitts is another that I remember that I hadn't seen mentioned.


When I was in college I had a summer job at a local bottling plant. The equipment was made in the 40s or 50s. All returnable bottles, which were prone to explode when being filled with the carbonated water. Our mint ginger ale actually had a tiny bit of grain alcohol (not listed as an ingredient) in it. The formula for the mint came from Wrigleys. There was a sight glass on the syrup dispenser and when the syrup for a batch was running low they would stop the line, drain the system and switch to the next flavor. When the Cream Soda was being drained I would take a few clean bottles and catch the syrup & run it through the capper. My Mom and I would put the syrup on Vanilla ice cream.
 
a couple of gooooodies.....
 

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Let's go back before bottles at the soda fountain with the paper cup in the stainless cup holder. Cokes were $0.10 mixed fresh with syrup and selzer.
I got a huge milky way candy bar for 5 cents. We walked miles to the soda fountain but on that sugar high we had no problem running home. Those were the 50's.
 
Lot's of vanished local brands. I recall Kisco Cola from Mount Kisco,NY
around 1960. Also recall-from the NYC-New Jersey-Philadelphia area Hoffman's, Cott's-"It's Cott to be good.", Frank's. Trenton, NJ had the
the E.L. Kerns bottling company, their logo was-yes-an elk. Their cream soda was red,I recall I found that very perverse until years later I learned about food coloring. Also Clicquot Club. In Allentown, PA there is the A Treat Soda company, they still used cane sugar. I recall the sodamachines in the movie theaters that mixed the soda in front of you like a fountain soda.
The vending machines I like were the ones that held the bottles in racks in an ice water bath. You deposited your coins then pulled your bottle out of the now opened rack. Putting your hand into that cold water on a boiling hot summer day often felt better than drinking the soda.
 
Tab?
Choc-Ola

We have a local distributor who sells Double Cola. They also have a lemon lime soda called Ski. In a small glass bottle, a Ski beats the socks off a mountain dew or mellow yellow.

Anybody here ever drink a Ski?
 
I don't know it it was a regional thing.

We had a 2 cent deposit for a 5 cent drink.

Stores paid 2 cents for bottles we picked up also. Guess that was the start of recycling?

Edit: Double Cola brand


But I do remember when they started giving 2 cents for bottles which pretty much doubled our money for collecting bottles. That used to be downright profitable when a lot of candy cost 1 to 5 cents.:)
 
After Squirt and Dr. Pepper Dad added Bubble-Up.
It started back in the 1920s.
Had a really clean, slightly tart taste.

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Hi:
The post about Coco Cola postal board advertisement bought some memories.
Remember:
1. Grape aide (great taste but small bottles)
2. Sun Crist
3. 7 up
4. Pepi Cola
5. Yahoo (?) Chocolate Drink
6. Upper 10
7. Frosty Root Beer (short round bottle)
8. Hires Root Beer
10. Vernon Ginger Ale
11. Canada Dry
12. Sun Aide
13. ??

I have Vernon's and Yahoo in the fridge as we speak. I have always bought Vernon's, and drank Yahoo as a kid that was a Loooong time ago. Didn't know it was still being made until about two years ago....
 
I grew up in Ohio, right along the PA border. I'm not certain how regional it is/was, but we used to buy Cotts ('It's "Cott"s, to be good!', or something very close to that.) I'm not sure what all flavors they made, but we mostly got their Ginger Ale. Also, they made a Mint Ginger Ale, and it was the best beverage when one was sick. My Mother always kept some on hand, and whenever anybody came down with the cold or flu, you always had a glass of ice cold Mint Ginger Ale. It really made you feel much better.

Not exactly in keeping with the theme of "old" sodas, but does any one remember "Clear" Pepsi? It might have only been for sale in test markets, not sure if it ever went mainstream. They claimed it had the same ingredients as regular Pepsi, but nothing added for coloring, and it was clear as water. But, you know our minds seem to be influenced by the color of foods and such, and it tasted significantly different to me. I liked it, but it obviously bombed, because I think I only ever bought one or two 2-liter bottles, and then I never saw or heard of it again.

I always liked Vernors too. I could only ever find it in OH/PA, and I used to buy it to take back up to Upstate NY when I was stationed there.

By and large, I don't have too many memories of drinking soda when I was young, because my parents weren't too keen on it. I believe that's why, to this day, I could live on pizza and Pepsi/Mt. Dew. The only time we had soda to drink in my house (aside from birthdays or some other celebration) was when we ate pizza, which my Mom made herself. I loved those days, because not only did I get to enjoy pizza and soda, but since we only used paper towels as plates, and no silverware, the only dishes that needed to be washed were our drinking glasses, the cookie-sheets the pizzas had been baked on, and the scissors used to cut the pizza. Joy!

Tim
You didn't say what year you were in e.Ohio but when i was there.In the early 50's their was a regional diary in Youngstown call Isaly's Dairy...Good hand packed ice cream..I worked as a kid in the freezer room. .75 cents per hour and all you could eat...Even that got old..
 
I cant stand the drink now--since they stopped using sugar. If they went back to pure cane sugar--id drink the stuff like its water.

Although it costs more, you can buy Coke at Costco that's made in Mexico with pure cane sugar. I agree it's better tasting.
 
You didn't say what year you were in e.Ohio but when i was there.In the early 50's their was a regional diary in Youngstown call Isaly's Dairy...Good hand packed ice cream..I worked as a kid in the freezer room. .75 cents per hour and all you could eat...Even that got old..

I grew up there in the 60's and 70's. Graduated in '78, left Ohio to join the USAF.

Yep, I surely remember Isaly's. My Father (and my Uncle, my cousin, and my older brother) worked at the U.S. Steel plant in Youngstown (until they closed), but we lived in Greenford. Nearby Columbiana had an Isaly's location there. I believe I still have an old Isaly's milk bottle, with the enlarged cream "bowl" area at the top.

I can't say I remember their products...I think most of them had closed before I was very old. Do you recall Handel's Ice Cream? Another local company, fairly small by comparison. Not a dairy, but they serve excellent ice cream. They're still in the area, and growing.

Bib said:
Our mint ginger ale actually had a tiny bit of grain alcohol (not listed as an ingredient) in it. The formula for the mint came from Wrigleys.

This may explain why drinking mint ginger ale always made us feel better when we were sick!

Tim
 
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Good old memories.....................

Did you ever take real care in taking the cork from a bottle top, into just one piece and then...................
putting the cap in the front of your t-shirt and the cork under neat it and pressing it into the cap, so you now had...........

A "COOL" looking what ever, stuck to your shirt ?

Today in Utah the new "Thing" is Ruby Red Squirt............

later.
 
As kids, we used to pry the cork out in one piece. Then put the bottle cap on the front of our t-shirt, put the cork back in the cap from the inside of the t-shirt.

radar1972, I would have never remembered doing this as a kid if not for your post. Funny how certain things stir a memory. Thanks for the memory.

Joe
 
I guess my favorite "retro" drink other than Coke has to be Big Red.

I remember being a kid in NC we would go to this Tex-Mex place called South of the Border. I always got a Big Red. Great food and soda. (late '90s)
 

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