Sunday, June 13, 2010
3:56 AM
Have A Coke and A Smile
I miss seeing these vintage pop machines around town. I also miss drinking pop from glass bottles. Obviously, cans and plastic bottles are far lighter and more convenient to pack or carry but they don't allow the pop to yield as much taste as it does when bottled in glass. Also, these old machines kept the pop much colder than today's machines do. It was not uncommon to find a little bit of slushy ice inside of your pop bottle when you bought one out of these old machines. They kept it ice cold and that made every pop, no matter which brand or flavor you purchased, taste delicious and refreshing. Man, was it ever good. I haven't had a pop like that in years. People who have grown up drinking out of plastic and aluminum don't know what they're missing.All but one of the machines in the pics above held glass bottles. The coke machine at the top was one of the very first canned pop machines. I can't be sure, but I'd say it's from the mid to late 70's. Canned pop didn't measure up to bottled pop but it was much colder and tastier than the pop we get today in plastic bottles. I don't know how or why, but plastic tempers the flavor of any liquid it holds. If money were no object, I'd open a 60's era soda/drug store and have one wall lined with vintage glass bottle pop machines. Each bottle of pop would cost only 10 cents just like when I was a kid. I'd have the old style tables, chairs, and counter stools that spin. What a happy, great atmosphere those old places had. I probably miss those more than any other store or business from my youth. There was something magical about having your mom take you by the hand and lead you into one of those places for a refreshing pop or burger while out shopping that brought instant happiness to me. I'd love to recreate that for my kids, and all of the kids of the next generation. I love that technology continues to advance and I would never want to halt that. But there are a few things, such as the corner soda shop, that never should have been modernized. Some things were/are perfect just as they are. You can repaint your house when the colors go out of style but you never want to try repainting the Mona Lisa. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. *Pics of the actual bottles to come in a later post.