6.5 ounce coke bottle trivia

[WARD O]

I just saw mention of the old returnable small size coke bottles from a few years ago.....

Did you know that when all the small local coke bottling plants ordered new bottles they came with the town name cast into the bottom of the bottle. This practice was in play up into the early 60's. Over time and with many fills and returns the bottles tended to migrater all over the country.

For several years while in college, working at the local Coke bottling plant was my summer job. We never had coffee breaks, we of course had coke breaks. We had one of the vending machines in the break room (they kept the price at 10 cents) where you could only see the top of the bottle and you made your selection from there.

When we came in for break, all would throw a dollar in the pot and draw our cokes. The winner was the one with the farthest from home coke bottle. They even kept a US map on the wall with a string pinned in place at our home town so we could measure distances.

ward

[Alvarez Kelly]

When stationed at Shemya AFB in Alaska, I found some Coke bottles from WWII with "Alaska" on the bottom. Very cool. I wish I knew where I put them... :-)

[gbrown]

That was something I discovered or was told about back in the late '50's. I used to always look on the bottom to see where the bottle originally came from. When they went to cans, I forgot all about it. Thanks for reminding me.

[Dale in Louisiana]

That was part of the game: You and your buddy buy cokes from the machine, the one with the bottle with the farthest off name had to buy the next round.

Being a dinosaur and all that, I remember when the slaughter house up the road had a red coke machine that would give you one for three cents. and I remember the uproar when it went to a nickle. Deposit for the bottle was two cents, and a couple of enterprising boys patrolling the roadside for tossed out bottles could find enough to satisfy a sweet tooth on a Saturday.

dale in Louisiana

[km101]

I guess everyone played the distance game. I know we did. And we used to scour the "bar ditches" close to town for Coke bottles. We usually could find enough for a box of .22 shells and it was off the woods for the rest of the day.

I often wondered what the local Coke bottler did with all the reject bottles that were too worn and nicked to re-use. Some were so worn that they looked fronsted. When I worked for an oil field equipment company I spent some time in South America, and I think that they shipped all those old bottles down there. I never saw a new Coke bottle the whole time I was in South America. I guess they used them til' they broke.

Ken

NRA Life Member

[gwpercle]

Funny , I was just thinking about those bottles this morning . How we would scour the neighborhood on our way to the corner store, picking up empty bottles for the deposit. It used to amaze me how many adults didn't know how valuable those bottles were . Turn in enough and you could get a coke, candy bar or ,on a good day , comic book. Most of the time I got the candy bar and just read the comic book in the store, while eating the candy.

gary

[cephas53]

As a boy I worked summers for a small town Coke plant feeding bottles into a washer. Bottles not fit to use, either going in or after being washed were thrown into a large bucket and smashed. There was a local glass plant in town and I think the scrap ended up there. Also remember the large 32 oz bottles were worth .05 cents, quite a find.

[Silver Eagle]

I remember my Dad buying the 16 Oz 8 Packs with the 10 Cent deposit. He would save them up for a while. Finally load up the car and take them in to the store. Usually the lady at the Service Desk would complain about the amount and have to call a stockboy to take them in back.
We used them for launching bottle rockets on the 4th, and he would complain that we owed him a dime if we broke one!

Silver Eagle

[Longwood]

We used to get kids to try and "Chug" a Coke in the little bottle.
It usually ended up as a stained shirt, snotty nose, red eyes, and a head that felt like it was on fire from blowing Coke out of their nose.
I sure wish I could taste one. The new stuff in the little bottles is no better that what is in the cans.

[Trey45]

As a kid I took my Radio Flyer and would go through the ditches and the bushes at the park, those big bottles were like finding gold! My kids have never known the thrill of finding return bottles. Something got lost along the way.....

[Big Rack]

Collecting bottles was our only source of income when I was a kid we'd range pretty far on our bannana seats and really looked to the kid with the "English Racer" which by the time they got to us were locked in third gear and never had brakes.
Question on Coke bottle ages, I have a 6 ounce bottle kinda greenish which has SODA cast on the sides but on the botom it says"Coca Cola Bottling Co. Cincinnati, Ohio". Any ideas on age and value?

[Bodydoc447]

We found an old bottle in my Dad's barn last month from Great Falls, MT. We saved it because it was in excellent shape and it'll look good on the curio shelf.

Doc

[R.M.]

Back in Canada as a kid, we always thought the green bottles were from the States. Old wives tale I guess.

[WILCO]

Thanks for the info Ward. Never knew that.

[Joe504]

If you want that old time Coke taste, find a Latin store. They sell cokes bottled in Mexico where they still use canesugar as a sweetiner. Taste fantastic

[Bodydoc447]

Our Sam's Club was running a special on "Mexican" coke this weekend.

Doc

[Hamish]

As a kid I took my Radio Flyer and would go through the ditches and the bushes at the park, those big bottles were like finding gold! My kids have never known the thrill of finding return bottles. Something got lost along the way.....

Knew just exactly how many empties it took to get a cold one out of the old water cooled machine that the sodas hung by the neck, and you had to slide them along the slot to fish them out. The creak of the board floor, and the cool, dim insides of the old store were heaven after getting too hot. There was a jingley bell that rang, and the old wooden screen door would slam no matter how is was closed,,,,,,. "Go down to the little store and get me half a pound of butter, and don't you stop to play" "Yes, maam!"

You said quite a piece there Trey.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Coke came in bottles ? lol

[3006guns]

That was part of the game: You and your buddy buy cokes from the machine, the one with the bottle with the farthest off name had to buy the next round.

Being a dinosaur and all that, I remember when the slaughter house up the road had a red coke machine that would give you one for three cents. and I remember the uproar when it went to a nickle. Deposit for the bottle was two cents, and a couple of enterprising boys patrolling the roadside for tossed out bottles could find enough to satisfy a sweet tooth on a Saturday.

dale in Louisiana

Hang on a second! I remember Cokes from the mid fifties as being a nickle, but THREE CENTS?? Suddenly I got a little younger.......thanks Dale!!:wink:

[Fishman]

Not as old as some, but old enough to remember bottles. My first real job was after school at the local grocery store/cafe. I had custodian duties, which included taking out the trash, sweeping the parking lot, and yes, sorting the returnable bottles. I was eleven when I started that job in the summer of 1981. Made $2.25 an hour, I did, and since my bicycle didn't need any gas, I spent some on Cokes and Baby Ruth's and saved the rest.

Edit - Oops, I almost forgot. I also spent some of it next door at the hairdresser's. They had a Space Invader arcade game and I WAS old enough to think the high school girl that helped out was really cute. And she had a cool Mustang.

[rockrat]

Cheapest I can remember was 5 cents. Old feed store downtown had one of the machines you had to slide it to remove it. Went down many an alleyway looking for bottles. A good weekend was enough for a comic, TWO cokes and some candy/bubblegum. With the 2 cokes, no wonder I was wired all day Saturday.

[1Shirt]

Yep, a nickle in the machines, and big drugstore cokes in a glass were a dime!
Not many one here will remember drugstore cokes I bet!
1Shirt!

[shredder]

I can clearly remember the old water filled coke cooler in the corner store where the bottles were all lined up in there. You took one out, there was a towel on the side of the machine to dry it off and we used the honor system to pay. There was a tin box on the side of the machine and it was no big thing to see somone make thier own change from the box. Those were the days.

[bob208]

i put many a rubbed off bufflo nickle in a coke machine. if you wanted to leve with the bottle you had to give another .02 cents. i too picked up coke bottles and milk bottles to buy .22 shells. i remember the fountian cokes both nickle and dime. you could also get cherry or chocholot put in them.

i also washed many of the large soda bottles for katchup for my grandmother.

[edler7]

My town had 3 pharmacies, 2 of them had soda fountains where you could get a coke that they squirted syrup in the glass and filled it with carbonated water. One was much better than the other, I think they skimped on the syrup. The local coke plant was about 4 blocks from my house, I remember going up there and watching them bottle cokes.

Mexican cokes do taste more like the old cokes I remember as a kid.

Christina Onasis drank so much coke, it was rumored she could tell where in the world a coke came from by the taste.

[Dale in Louisiana]

Hang on a second! I remember Cokes from the mid fifties as being a nickle, but THREE CENTS?? Suddenly I got a little younger.......thanks Dale!!:wink:

There was a slaughterhouse and meat market two lots over from where I lived up until I was ten. Had the old red Coca-cola machine, and a rack beside it that held two of the wooden cases so you could stow your empties. It took three pennies to get a cold coke.

dale in Louisiana

[Silver Eagle]

Mexican Cokes taste like the old Cokes because they are sweetened with cane sugar as opposed to high-fructose corn syrup as is now used in the US.
The only exception to this is Cokes that are labeled "Kosher". They use cane sugar. Check the label to make sure.

[Smitty's Retired]

The first BB Rifle I bought when I was a kid, I saved up money from collecting coke bottles off the side of the road along with cutting grass. If I remember, you got .02 or .03 cents per bottle. This was in the early '60s.