# Here's the real thing!



## CreekWalker (Nov 3, 2015)

I walked in a mechanic shop today, and spied this old Coke machine in the back. Owner says it still works , when he pulled the plug and replaced it when a modern drink machine. Customers had to honor pay , into a fruit jar when Cokes sold for more than a quarter, this is originally a dime Coke machine![attachment=IMG_3071.JPG] [attachment=IMG_3070.JPG] [attachment=IMG_3069.JPG]


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## CreekWalker (Nov 3, 2015)

The local Coca-Cola plant added the Coke bottle sticker in 1960's and the Here's the real thing logo in the 1970's. The 20 cents price label around the same time. The 1950's logo is "Drink Coca-Cola", which replaced the "pause refresh" motto, which made really good sense. [attachment=IMG_3069a.JPG]


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## Eric (Nov 3, 2015)

Awesome! Not many out there still in service... That is a Cavalier 72 model around 1957.. I have one I bought a few years ago while out hunting this stuff... [attachment=CAV72.jpg]


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## CreekWalker (Nov 3, 2015)

Wow, awesome machine! Eric. I grew up in the 1960's and never saw a white machine until the plastic faced machines were introduced. The red ones were very popular locally.


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## Eric (Nov 4, 2015)

Thank You... This machine, I believe was one of the first to have an electric mech vend.... Before you had to drop in your money then press down on the crank handle to trigger the bottle stack and release the bottle... this model, that came out late 50s, you dropped in your money, the little red lens that says "Have A Coke" would light up then the stack would release and you pulled your bottled soda out.This model was usually all white on the main door with red on the sides... but there were a few 2 toned and even all red... I have had several machines but this was my first model I ever bought. Great size machine and my Coke bottles look killer stacked up beside it in the old yellow crates.


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## Bass Assassin (Nov 4, 2015)

Both of you thanks for sharing your machines. I love them. As a kid in the late 60's early 70's I remember those machines. I was scared I wasn't strong enough pull the drinks out!


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## CreekWalker (Nov 4, 2015)

That's right , Bass man!, I remember , that a soft pull, equaled a loss of drink and coins, as the bottle would stall and the locking mechanisms, would prevent it from being removed! I learned to grip it , and jerk the bottle out with a quick snatch! Also Eric, our local Agriculture office had one with the lever, you didn't play with the lever either, as a limp wristed push downward, was a wasted effort, locking the mechanism up! For a 9 or ten year old 4-H'er that was a disaster, on a hot July day, our local agent Mr. Mike, had a master key and would open it up, to retrieve it! On November 12th this year , is the 116th birthday of Coca-Cola in Chattanooga TN and the world! The first Coke "truck" was a two mule powered wagon, way back in 1899, when Ben F. Thomas and J.F. Johnson began plant operations. This grainy photo is the first mechanical Coca-Cola truck circa 1915![attachment=11-4-15 001a.JPG]


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## CreekWalker (Nov 4, 2015)

Never one to miss an opportunity, I asked the mechanic, if there was any bottle caps left in the cap catcher! Yes, I have no shame. He was taken off guard by the question, looking a little perturbed , but he has put up with my family and me, on and off,  for years. "Sure, he said , I removed the change years ago, you collect caps?" Yep, I said, and pretty much anything old. "Well, the doors open, take a look, keep what you find." This from a guy charging me $150 dollars an hour, very charitable. Well, the cap box was empty, but there was a tray inside, probably a compressor moisture overflow type, full of lint, cobwebs and dead brown recluse spiders. I pulled in out, turning it up of one end, and listened to items slide to the lower end. Something heavy, and small items. The heavy item was an old Stanley box cutter. Using it as a sifter , I dug into the lint ball! First thing out was a greenish 22 short, and bubblegum stuck to a nickel , 1954 model, hey! Second was a similar sized coin, we affectionately called a slug. It was used to fool the machine into coughing up a free drink, but the machine had other ideas, and had a bypass trough for such offenders, which either refunded it to the owner or kept it, so that doesn't happen again. Someone had tried the same tactic, with a white button , but the machine wouldn't have any of it, and relegated it to the lint ball. I then, found the one and only bottle cap, an RC cola, which is sacrilege, to be found in a Coke box, and surely it did not fit the 6 oz. bottle dispenser to boot!  Great thing ,however, it was a ten cent refund, is this still valid?  An odd find and the really cool find , other than two wayward red and black checkers , was a bracelet charm of a boxing grove. Now what's the story there?[attachment=11-4-15 007.JPG] [attachment=11-4-15 005.JPG]


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## CreekWalker (Nov 4, 2015)

Beside an odd penny, the charm turned out to be marked: Jack Dempsey! One man's junk, a little treasure! So I came out and asked  Mac, if he wanted the box cutter, he took one look and said , Naw , it's frozen open from rust! So I fished the cap out my pocket , and asked about the RC cola cap. "We kept RC's in the ice box and people opened them, with the Coke opener."   Good answer!  Hey, I said,  I found a 1954 nickel , fishing the slug out (accidently) instead, and handing it to him. "Yeah , he said, Jimmy , our grease monkey (lube man) was always feeding them in, for a free drink, but what he didn't know was, I took it out of his check."  (most charitable fellow.) "Well, what else did you find?" Fumbling in my pocket, I said: found a penny, a 22 short, (which surprised him!) and Jack Dempsey's glove! As he walked back to a diagnostic machine,, he turned grinning, and asked if I has found Mohammed Ali's boxing shorts? Haha no , I said. "Well, Too bad, we used them to clean up spills!"  [attachment=11-4-15 006.JPG]


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## Eric (Nov 5, 2015)

Hey great scores!.. love the vending trinket boxing glove... That machine would vend the 12 oz. bottlesabout the only machine that wouldn't would be the Vendo 39 and the Vendo 23 spin top which used adrum instead of shelves.. but I think they even eventually made modified 39 drums for them.  Only problemwith the 39 and really most drum machines is it really is a one brand/flavor vender to where these bottle door machines you had 7 sometimes 9 choices.Hang on to those little treasures... It's how my son started collecting caps.. when I would buy a machine we would clean out the cap catcher and around the coin box... found a few mercury dimes, wheat pennies and lots of caps.


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## Bass Assassin (Nov 5, 2015)

Great posts fellas. I certainly enjoy reading about those old machines and what comes out of them. I can remember pulling on the drinks trying to get them out of the machine and I was afraid the caps would cut my hands.(and sometimes they did!)


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## Eric (Nov 5, 2015)

Yeah those caps could be sharp... same as those slider type chest machines... anyone remember those...you would slide the bottle through the racks and rearrange them to get to the flavor you wanted, thebottles hung from their necks in the racks and man if it slipped out of your hand that bottle flap wouldlock and you were out of luck. Anyone else have a old machines or coolers?  Would love to see some posted....


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## CreekWalker (Nov 5, 2015)

Eric, I remember the chest machines very well. I had two family members with country stores, the Coke type was red, with white lettering, and had four metal hinged lift up doors. The RC and Nehi chest, was yellow with black, red and white letters with glass sliding doors. And I would cut my fingers, pulling them out , bass! , not often ,but on occasion. Eric, all the RC cola bottles of my child hood, was tall 16 oz. types like the big Nehi Orange. I don't remember any smaller ones. It took 16 ozs. to wash down, a big bologna sandwich, a bag of Bugles or pork rinds, and desert:  either a large Moon Pie or a Hostess Marshmallow Coconut Pink Snow Balls! This was the 1960-70's , I remember, where every store clerk, smoked Virginia Slim cigs and was drinking a Tab cola.


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## logueb (Nov 5, 2015)

Those coke machines bring back memories when I was a teenager in the 60's.  There was one outside the Shell Gas Station.  Some of the guys that I knew with would take a cup and a bottle opener and have a Coke "on the house"  at night.   The owner would return the next morning to find a row of empty bottles.  Never did this myself, just knew some guys who did.  They claimed the machine would take their money.[:-]  Thanks for sharing.  Buster


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## Johnnysoda (Nov 6, 2015)

I just bought my first machine, a 1950s RC machine. I will post some pictures when can, i am not on my home PC atm so its hard for me to post pictures. I bought it at an auction and i hope to get it running soon. When you plug it in it doesnt light up or cool at all. It is white and has the red label and on the front says "Enjoy Royal Crown Cola" it has a glass door on the front where i assume you would pull out the bottle after you paid for it?


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## Eric (Nov 6, 2015)

Johnnysoda... is it a round top like the ones pictured here or a squared top machine...If it's squared top it's likely from the early 60s.... I'm on soda-machines.com all the time too.. any advice you need to get that machine up and going that group will know... it's another great site dedicated to soda machines and coolers.If you need help with your machine that's the place to go. They will be able to tell you age, maker, model and what it needs to get it running, cooling and vending.


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## Johnnysoda (Nov 7, 2015)

Yeah it's a square top. I will definitely Check that site out! It sounds very interesting. My dad works for 7up so I have been talking to the guys at his warehouse that know how to fix the older ones, and they said I only needed to replace a few parts and it should be good!


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## CreekWalker (Nov 12, 2015)

[attachment=image.jpeg] [attachment=image(QL).jpeg]
Saw this at a local sale , if your interested pm me for into.


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## iggyworf (Nov 12, 2015)

Love that Pepsi machine. Too bad you live too far from me. Here are pics of my Pepsi and my girlfriends coke.


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## CreekWalker (Nov 12, 2015)

Very nice! Right handed door model is mirror image of the one I photographed this morning.


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## iggyworf (Nov 12, 2015)

Thanx. I was told that my 12 slot right handed door was a lot more scarce than others. I could not find one like it yet. But I don't know a whole lot about vending machines.


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## CreekWalker (Nov 12, 2015)

Me either!


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