Vintage roadside

[KY Gentleman]

I got excited when I saw these vintage soft drink machines just the other day. Unfortunately they weren’t operational but I remember getting a cold bottle of refreshing cola as a kid.
Stopping by a gas station and pulling that bottle out made you feel like you were drawing Excalibur!

 

[1mach1]

I got excited when I saw these vintage soft drink machines just the other day. Unfortunately they weren’t operational but I remember getting a cold bottle of refreshing cola as a kid.
Stopping by a gas station and pulling that bottle out made you feel like you were drawing Excalibur!

I totally agree! I havent used a soda vending machine in years, except for to buy my son a Coke. In a plastic bottle. For shame. [emoji14]

 

[Fading Fast]

...pulling that bottle out made you feel like you were drawing Excalibur!...

Nice imagery - well said.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The smell of the inside of one of those machines was unforgettable -- a combination of stale spilled soda and mildew.

 

[Fading Fast]

I totally agree! I havent used a soda vending machine in years, except for to buy my son a Coke. In a plastic bottle. For shame. [emoji14]

The worst part of those vending machine plastic bottles (besides tautologically being plastic) is the stupid bottom of four prongs that make it awkward as heck to balance them on a flat surface.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

The smell of the inside of one of those machines was unforgettable -- a combination of stale spilled soda and mildew.

I've got an operating 1958 full size Coke machine in my storage shed, and you're spot on, Lizzie.

I used to use it for a novelty night light in my dining room, but the electrical cost to run it wasn't worth the occasional Coke the family would pull from it; getting the 6 oz. glass bottles was easy, but they quit making the 10 and 12 ounce versions years ago.

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

You can still get the 12 ounce bottles if you have a place that sells Mexican Coke -- that seems to be the standard size.

We had a couple of different machines at our gas station. The first one I remember is an old red Vendo with a handle you had to pull to release the mechanism to pull the bottle out, and that was replaced in the early 70s by a Cavalier with the fake woodgrain panel on the front. But they both had that smell inside.

Both of those machines are long gone -- the old Vendo sat in the back of our grease room for years after we stopped using it, and then one day it was missing and nobody ever told me where it ended up. I still have the keys for each of them, just in case.

 

[Fading Fast]

Just a web pic, but how much do you want to stop and get an ice-cream cone here?

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Just a web pic, but how much do you want to stop and get an ice-cream cone here?

View attachment 114092

I stopped at one last Saturday night, and had a chocolate fudge sundae. [emoji6]

Love that Twistee Treat.

Rob

 

[Fading Fast]

I stopped at one last Saturday night, and had a chocolate fudge sundae. [emoji6]

Love that Twistee Treat.

Rob

I am jealous.

 

[BobHufford]

I posted this building in this or the "neon" thread in the past. Just found out the theatre will be reopening!

Seymour, Missouri.

http://www.ozarksalive.com/seymours-owen-theatre-soon-to-reopen/

It would be cool to see the drive-in theatre open again as well...

 

[Frunobulax]

I got excited when I saw these vintage soft drink machines just the other day. Unfortunately they weren’t operational but I remember getting a cold bottle of refreshing cola as a kid.
Stopping by a gas station and pulling that bottle out made you feel like you were drawing Excalibur!

I don't know if it's still there, but up to several years ago, a local industrial business, Pickrel Brothers (they sell pipe fittings and stuff like that), had a 10 cent Coke machine that still worked. Dispensed the little Cokes for a thin dime. It was always a pleasure to go in there and take advantage of that.

It's a scientific fact that Coke tastes better out of the little bottles.

 

[Fading Fast]

...It's a scientific fact that Coke tastes better out of the little bottles.

⇧ Absolutely

Along similar lines:

• Peanuts taste better out of wax bags with serrated tops
• Pepperidge Farm Goldfish taste better because they are shaped like Goldfish (stolen from another thread)
• Ketchup taste better when applied directly to the food from the bottle sitting on the table and not out of a fancy serving dish
• Milk tastes better from a glass bottle than from every container that has been used since
• Nutter Butter cookies taste more "peanuty" because they are shaped and scored like peanut shells (the new circular shape ones should be a felony, not just a misdemeanor)
• And honey tastes better when squeezed out of a bottle shaped like a bear

 

[Frunobulax]

⇧ Absolutely

Along similar lines:

• Peanuts taste better out of wax bags with serrated tops
• Pepperidge Farm Goldfish taste better because they are shaped like Goldfish (stolen from another thread)
• Ketchup taste better when applied directly to the food from the bottle sitting on the table and not out of a fancy serving dish
• Milk tastes better from a glass bottle than from every container that has been used since
• Nutter Butter cookies taste more "peanuty" because they are shaped and scored like peanut shells (the new circular shape ones should be a felony, not just a misdemeanor)
• And honey tastes better when squeezed out of a bottle shaped like a bear

I can't speak to the veracity of all these claims, but the last one is incontrovertible.

And they changed Nutter Butters? That should have required an amendment to the Constitution.

Now, I guess they are just another peanut butter sandwich cookie.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[Fading Fast]

I can't speak to the veracity of all these claims, but the last one is incontrovertible.

And they changed Nutter Butters? That should have required an amendment to the Constitution.

Now, I guess they are just another peanut butter sandwich cookie.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

Good call on the Constitutional amendment - finally, a serous reason to change that august doc that will help all the people.

I don't know if the classic shaped ones are gone (they are still available online, but is that just old stock - don't know), but my local supermarket now only stocks this ⇩ abomination:


While this ⇩ is what the world wants

 

[3fingers]

I don't know if it's still there, but up to several years ago, a local industrial business, Pickrel Brothers (they sell pipe fittings and stuff like that), had a 10 cent Coke machine that still worked. Dispensed the little Cokes for a thin dime. It was always a pleasure to go in there and take advantage of that.

We had one at the last shop I worked at. It sat in the back for years and we got it out, replaced the cord and fired it up. We still had an actual Coke plant closeby then and they had about 10 cases of the 6 ounce glass they would fill for us. It was supposed to be a gimmick for customers to use, but since it was a town of 450 people the kids found out about it and would run it out in a day. I think Coke was charging us about 35 cents to run the bottles so the owner finally quit doing it.
It was the wing handle vendor with a rotary drum to hold the bottles. You had to fill it by the chart inside to make the drum advance to the right spot to line up with the door when you put in a dime and pushed down on the wing. Nothing electric, all mechanical and gravity.

 

[Frunobulax]

We had one at the last shop I worked at. It sat in the back for years and we got it out, replaced the cord and fired it up. We still had an actual Coke plant closeby then and they had about 10 cases of the 6 ounce glass they would fill for us. It was supposed to be a gimmick for customers to use, but since it was a town of 450 people the kids found out about it and would run it out in a day. I think Coke was charging us about 35 cents to run the bottles so the owner finally quit doing it.
It was the wing handle vendor with a rotary drum to hold the bottles. You had to fill it by the chart inside to make the drum advance to the right spot to line up with the door when you put in a dime and pushed down on the wing. Nothing electric, all mechanical and gravity.

Yeah, there was some ingenious engineering in things like that.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[Frunobulax]

Good call on the Constitutional amendment - finally, a serous reason to change that august doc that will help all the people.

I don't know if the classic shaped ones are gone (they are still available online, but is that just old stock - don't know), but my local supermarket now only stocks this ⇩ abomination:
View attachment 114686

While this ⇩ is what the world wants
View attachment 114687

Those round things are heretical.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[1mach1]

Good call on the Constitutional amendment - finally, a serous reason to change that august doc that will help all the people.

I don't know if the classic shaped ones are gone (they are still available online, but is that just old stock - don't know), but my local supermarket now only stocks this ⇩ abomination:
View attachment 114686

While this ⇩ is what the world wants
View attachment 114687

I haven't heard about that craziness! It was an act of lunacy to change the shape. Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea? That really is a shame.

 

[Fading Fast]

I haven't heard about that craziness! It was an act of lunacy to change the shape. Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea? That really is a shame.

I'm so with you. As noted, I don't know if the old (awesome peanut) shaped ones are gone as they appear to still be available on line (but that could be old stock), but my supermarket only has the hateful, stupid, new round-shaped ones.