From Richard Mix : Please be sure to check out this week's ebay auctions - lots of great, new fresh inventory!!!  Including - COKE BOTTLES - Summerfield Johnson, Kennedy Center, Home Depot, Kentucky Fried Chicken (the very first one that is hard to come by!!!) and a number of hard to find Atlanta Coke Employee bottles!!...and a few other surprises. --click here to see--

From Blair Matthews, Editor of Soda Pop Dreams Magazine : Vol.5 of the Back Issues CD is available for sale via the website. Price for this new CD (which contains Issues #24-28) is only $9.95 US for a limited time and includes postage!! All the details can be found at: http://www.pww.on.ca/store.htm

Also if anyone else has bottles or other soda-related items to offer, E-mail and let us all know.

Be sure to send me your UP FOR GRABS item listings! E-mail to: Up For Grabs 

From Doreen Walden : For many years, there was a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where I am from. When in high school, my friends and I would always look on the bottom of our Coke bottles to see if we could find one from Crawfordsville. I have been looking for an old bottle from the Crawfordsville plant for some time. The plant stopped bottling in the late 50s and was torn down in the 80s, I believe. Does anyone know where I could get this particular bottle? Thanks!

From Mike Bryant : $REWARD$ Will pay top dollar for a 30 BELOW acl soda from San Diego, California. Also want other San Diego area bottles - embossed or acl. Phone: (828) 851-2787 or by E-mail.

There are also Recently updated! WANTED and FOR SALE items listed <here> toward the bottom of the page.

Do you have a particular item, or items, that you have been looking for a long time to complete part of your collection, or something you want - but have not as yet been able to find? Send it so all of us can help you look. You never know where it may turn up! E-mail it to My Missing Item

Beyoncé Knowles is back in a new Pepsi TV ad which debuted on Wednesday, July 16, during the premier of a new weekly music series, Pepsi Smash on WB at 9 p.m. (EST). Knowles’ commercial, "Directions," is set to her single "Crazy in Love," from her debut solo album, "Dangerously in Love." The new ad features Knowles rolling up on an unsuspecting gas station attendant. Stunned and speechless, the young attendant musters just enough composure to get Knowles back on her way. Pepsi Smash is a one-hour show featuring musical performances from some of the biggest artists across all musical genres in front of a live audience. The first of six weekly telecasts included live performances by Monica, The Black Eyed Peas, Evanescence and The Ataris. Beyoncé, along with four other musical acts, will electrify the Pepsi Smash audience during the program’s second telecast on July 23.

Procter & Gamble has said it will be putting its drink brands Sunny Delight and Punica up for sale, as the company attempts to focus on its snacks and coffee divisions.

What's new? This is important, so listen up! A searchable data base of collectors is being planned and our help has been requested. What we need to know is: What information would you want to have available? Preliminary ideas have been to include name, email address, at least general location and collecting interests / expertise. Other information could be made available by becoming "members" of the network, which would be free. Not only would it be free, it could be updated by the members themselves, if necessary. I think it is a great idea - would enable us to search others with same interests for trading, etc., as well as provide a centralized list for questions, etc. The possibilities are endless. So PLEASE email me your ideas.

The developer is already putting together a beta system for testing purposes. Chris has contacted me (the Soda Fizz and the FOHBC)  and Reggie Lynch (the Southern Bottle Club) to give him a hand. So, this is a great chance to get in on the ground floor....don't wait, email your ideas and comments today!

New bottles or cans, or anything soda, in your area ?
Please send the info so all of us can know @ Whats New

JULY 26  -  NORTH BLENHEIM, NEW YORK
Capital Region Antique Bottle & Insulator Club's Annual Swap Meet (Sat. 9 AM - 3 PM) at the New York State Power Authority Blenheim-Gilboa Visitors Center, Route 30, North Blenheim, New York. INFO: KEVIN LAWLESS, 3363 Guilderland Ave., Apt. 3, Schenectady, NY 12306-1820, PH: (518) 357-2333 (evenings & weekends), E-mail: kflbostons@aol.com. 

JULY 26  -  STRATFORD, CONNECTICUT
Southern Connecticut Antique Bottle & Glass Collectors Association’s Annual Show & Sale (Sat. 8 AM – 1 PM) at the Christ Episcopal Church, 2000 Main St., Stratford, Connecticut. INFO: BRUCE MITCHELL, PH: (203) 799-2570 or JIM MEGURA, PH: (203) 922-4372.

If you would like to view the full 'events calendar,' I now maintain  < click here>.
Any new events  in your area? E-mail it so all of us can know, to: Upcoming Events

There isn't much for me to comment about this week. I have been working on laying out the next issue of Bottles and Extras. No use to wait until the last minute - and it is too hot outside to do much else. I hate to be hot.

It seems that from morning to night, I am in the middle of bottles, or something that concerns bottles. But I suppose it could be worse. It still amazes me what I find out as I go - what lengths some people will go to research this hobby we've all gotten caught up in, and I am proud to be a part of it all.

My old bottle magazines haven't come yet. I've been looking for them for a couple of weeks now, and keep saying, "Maybe tomorrow!" But tomorrow hasn't come yet. If anyone is interested in copies of some of the articles from back issues of Western Collector or Bottles and Extras - check out the listing of those, which begins <here>. And then let me know if you find any you'd like to read.

Until next time, Happy Collecting! CokeGirl

Sent by Mike Elling, Sharon, Tennessee

Some steady sleuthing by soda scholar, Dennis Smith, has revealed two postwar issues of Chero products in 12-ounce steel cans. 

The end of "Chero" as a brand name is generally considered to be 1948, with the official wartime emergency end of cane sugar rationing in this country. Many NEHI bottlers issued Chero-Cola in a standard "art deco" logo in a premium 6-ounce bottle throughout the wartime period. These were issued in place of the standard 12-ounce Royal Crown Cola soda bottle of the time.

The cans have a similar logo and were issued sometime between the mid-1950's and before the use of postal ZIP code in 1961.

Dennis came across these photos on the web of  the Chero-Cola can, and Chero-Cola Root Beer, which he says was new to him.

More cans of many different brands and flavors, including these Chero cans in larger photos, are here: http://www.one-mans-junk.com/sodacanlibrary/ 

If you have a soda-related subject that you would like to see here as an "FYI" article, or have information you yourself would like to contribute, don't be shy, send it to: FYI Idea