What's more American than Coke? For years we saw ads such as the one above without thinking much about it. But here's the Mystery of the Week..."What was the name of the boy with the Coke cap hat?" He had a name and later on we learned it in a different way, but without looking it up on the internet, can you remember what his name was?
On a different note, we plan to start a series of stories about the role Coke played in our lives and print a few of them until interest runs out.
So, here is my request to you. Would you please take a few moments and send me an email story about some incident in your life that was centered around Coca Cola? It can be a favorite date, a trip, a visit, and just having a Coke at a special time with a special friend. We'll run a different story each week and perhaps the memories will jog your own special time when "things went better with Coke!"
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Tommy Towery, Class of '64 - I've added another photo to show the Mystery Item with the drinks in the racks. In the internet world, these drink machines are called "sliders" and for obvious reasons. The one thing I remember the most is that many times all the different kinds of drinks were mingled together and sometimes you had to work through the maze to get the brand you wanted, sliding some down and into a different track and moving them back and forth until you finally got to the right one. It was like one of those sliding number puzzles with numbers from 1 to 15.
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Rod Dixon, Class of '69 - The mystery photo is a soft drink machine (or in the South a Coke machine). You slid you selection to the left and into the slot to pull the drink up from that point. That is, after you put your money in. Sometimes it would work without putting money in! My brother told me that, I never tried it myself.
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Pat Torzillo Stolz, Class of '66 - I believe this weeks mystery photo is a drink machine. You picked which drink you wanted, inserted your money, slid the drink along the rails, and out to the end and pulled it up, sort of like a "drink maze." I have sure enjoyed all the issues and the fond memories they bring back. I loved Carters, and even had my own pair of skates, although I was not a good skater, I loved the music and the time with friends. We were able to check our skates and leave them there, and mine were still there when it was torn down!!
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Bruce Fowler, Class of '66
Most Esteemed Editor,
The Mystery Photograph is of the customer perceived inside of a carbonated beverage vending machine. This type of machine might be called a horizontal machine in comparison to later, including contemporary, machines that stored the beverage containers vertically.
The containers in this case - bottles, had a torus integrated on the neck of the bottle, usually just below the lip of the bottle, which was sealed with a metal cap.
The gaps between the metal strips in the photograph were larger than the diameter of the bottle's neck below the torus but less than the diameter of the torus. Hence the bottles would rest on the strips by the torus.
One then obtained a beverage by lifting the bottle slightly so it was not resting on the torus, and navigate it abound to the vending holder (lower left of photograph). One then deposited the requisite about of change and the hinged flap (at the top of the holder in the photograph) was unlocked so one could withdraw the bottle.
I am unsure of when these were discontinued. They were relatively common when I was an undergraduate but already being replaced by the vertical chain of grasping pipe style even then. My consumption of carbonate beverage changed radically when I entered graduate school and it was thus several years before I again purchased a bottled carbonated beverage.
I remain, Sir, your attentive reader,
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John Turrentine, Class of '65 - I believe that is a soda vending machine. As I recall, after paying for your drink (Cokes) one had to grasp the neck of the bottle and slide it around to the exit point and then pull up. I believe it could dispense a Coke that was soooooo cold it was almost frozen....
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Mike Griffith, Class of '66 - This week's Mystery Photo looks, to me, to be an old "Coke machine" where one could select their desired bottle from the one of the rows (only the top of the bottle neck and cap of the bottle extended above the slide and the remainder of the bottle hung suspended) and slide it to the levered larger slot on the left side of the picture; insert the money (probably $.05 or $.06 at that time) and lift the bottle out. The boxes that I really liked were nothing more that a large box cooler that was filled with drinks, water and a block of ice; when "fishing around" for the desired drink it would usually take multiple times because my hand would get so cold that I could not keep it in the water for any length of time.
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Linda Beal Walker, Class of '66 - The Mystery Photo is either a xylophone with a lid, track for a very short train, or maybe an old Coke refrigerated "chest" that you dropped the coin in the slot and pulled the drink down and out. As you can see, I don't know what it is! WHAT IS IT!!!!!! You've stumped me on this one. I guess I could look it up, but where is the fun in that.
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Jeff Fussell, Class of '66 - This week’s photo is the inside of a chest-type soft drink vending machine. Judging from the hint of red around the exterior, probably Coca Cola. These coolers were loaded by hanging the bottles by their necks in the slots between the rails. You would slide your selection to the coin-operated gate which would release the bottle. They were commonplace outside of most gas stations and corner grocery stores. They kept the drinks a whole lot colder than the newer (and less reliable) machines.
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Eddie Sykes, Class of ‘66 - The mystery item is a bottle drink vending machine. They were mostly used in small grocery stories. I remember Prince Grocery had one. You would slide your drink choice (usually a Coke Cola, Pepsi Cola, Orange Crush, Double Cola, or Dr. Pepper) to the middle gate and pull up after inserting your money. I saw some of these in Europe during the late sixties used to dispense beer. I can also remember some of my devious friends removing the caps with a bottle opener and taking a free drink with a straw. (not me?)
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Shirley Latta Gomez, Class of '71 - Is that an old coke machine? You had to pull the drink to the end and pull up through the (for no better choice of words) the exit? I remember you had to have a good grip on the bottle to pull it up and out. Keep up the good work!
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Subject:
More on pens
Eddie Sykes
Class of ‘66
I can remember in elementary school some of the older desks still had ink wells in them. The pens most of our parents used had to be dipped. The model we used had refillable ink reservoirs in them. Ball point pens replaced ink pens during our Lee High days. However, not before ink pens came out with ink cartridges. Cartridges were easier and cleaner, but much more expensive to buy than ink. I can also remember refilling cartridges with ink from the bottle with a hypodermic needle. Thanks Jim for more memories.
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Subject:Fountain Pens
Bruce Fowler
Class of '66
Illuminating Editor,
My compliments to Jim Bannister for his article on Fountain Pens, and to you for the wisdom to include same.
My story is similar. As an undergraduate I soon became dissatisfied with the vagaries of ball point pens and adopted fountain pens to take notes with - except in lab where a graphite & clay pencil on waterproof paper was a necessity if one was the klutz that I was/am. I started out with the inexpensive cartridge pens and refilled them with a cast off syringe and needle of a fellow dorm resident who was diabetic. The paranoia over such was significantly less in those days when the recreational drug of choice was wither smoked or drunk. Nonetheless, the refilling of cartridges was exacting and invariably messy - hence my perpetually stained fingers.
While working on Master's, I switched to a Rapidiograph, primarily because India Ink was a freebie for graduate students at U Illinois in those days. But after that back to a fountain pen, matriculating to piston fillers as my economic situation improved.
My collection now numbers over a hundred, almost all tried for a period, but my favorites are 800 series Pelikans. Both of my books, The Physics of War and The Metaphysics of War, were first written longhand with a fountain pen on paper before being keyed and edited on a PC, as were most of my other publications. Like any good nerd, I carry a pocket protector/pen case containing three fountain pens - one with a regular nib for checks and the like, one with a signature nib for writing maths in my research notebook, and one with a regular nib and red ink for emphatic writing - and two pencils.
If you would be so kind as to pass my e-mail address to Jim, I should be happy to share information with him on ink sources, repair of old pens, sources for new pens, and the like.
Bruce Fowler [brucefowler@otelco.net]
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Subject:Mousepads
Linda Beal Walker
Class of '66
Tommy, where did Jimmy Bannister get the Lee mouse pad?
(Editor's Note: Others asked the same questions. The mousepads were purchased and available at the 2005 Reunion. Sarajane Steigerwald Tarter still has many I am sure. I will check with her and see if we can come up with a way to make them available for purchase by mail.)
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Subject:Large Key Keyboards
Aaron Potts
(Others might be interested in this)
For about the past five years I have searched over the internet and almost every computer company there is to see if I could find a keyboard that had larger keys. I am not a small man and I have rather large hands and a standard keyboard makes me type more than one letter simultaneously and that gets very frustrating. I have worked in a lot engineering departments and almost every man I deal with on a daily basis tell me they wish they had a keyboard with larger keys but, had all the functions of a regular keyboard. So if anyone is interested, there is a company that has started making them. No, this is not an advertisement but, if you want to give them the information, it is CHESTER CREEK TECHNOLOGIES, 1-888-214-5450. This is the only company I have found that that makes the large keyboard that has all the same keys as a standard keyboard. The keyboard is 7” wide X 19” long and has 1” square keys, and they cost $89.00 each with $8.00 for shipping. If you want to see them, they can visit the WED site and see them. They can be in color or standard black with white characters. Now we men can relax while we type.
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Subject:Youtube & Skating
Sarajane Steigerwald Tarter
Class of '65
Now was that last birthday 61? or 16? What Fun!!
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