GLEANINGS...PART III

The Importance of Coca Cola to this kid growing up in Atlantic, Iowa, during the 1930's period was beyond IMPORTANT!

(And since COCA COLA DAYS will, once again, be celebrated this coming September in the COCA COLA CAPITAL of the State of Iowa...and that would be my beloved hometown, of course!... you are expecting an explanation of that opening statement, right?) Mary, our oldest daughter, and I will have been-to-and-gone-from Atlantic by then and will have missed all the untamed and unbridled excitement of watching true Coca Cola memorabilia collectors push and shove other memorabilia collectors for bargains and rarities among the wares that will be displayed by the entrepreneurs/sellers of memorabilia from around the world...no kidding, this is a "blinking" big deal!

There was no such thing as "Diet Coke" or any other formula except for the original one for this drink that came only in its hour-glass-shaped bottle (regular and the promotional miniature-size) (and if I am wrong about this, I know there is a reader my age or older who will set me straight!). The Coke, which cost all of a hard-to-come-by nickel, was not all that common in the modest Cranston household as a nice pot roast from Dahlberg's Meat Market set Mom and Dad back a good 50 cents and would feed a family up to 10 people the way Mom stretched it out in a hundred different ways. I confess...on one trip to the meat market, I asked Oscar Dahlberg, the owner, for a 45-cent pot roast and pocketed the other five cents for a "blinking" Coca Cola; that dirty deed still creeps up at unexpected times; and I shudder at my duplicity but will have to say in my defense, that action has been the reason my three kids have been, from an early age, taught that "Conscience" is a mighty weapon in thwarting all kinds of childish and adultish misdeeds! And the fact that Pearl Dahlberg, Oscar's wife and my Kindergarten Teacher at Grant School, was standing at his elbow and could possibly have read my criminal mindset, thoughts and desires has plagued me for years...which would be nigh onto 75 calendar discards. (Listen folks, this IS a "blinking" big deal! ...but, I can see the humor in this lesson well learned! and I can hear a few chortlings (snorting, joyful chuckles) amongst you three readers...yeah!)

Harry Tyler and his family were the owners of the Atlantic franchise for the bottling of Coca Cola in those yesteryears. The plant was located on (me thinks) Chestnut Street and in my mind's eye, I can see it between Third and Second streets, wherever located easily within walking distance of 210 Birch. Harry was/is my hero, and his product was/is my addiction today, and it all started because of his masterpiece of a promotion. Simple enough: For each "A" on the Report Card, and this pertained to every school kid during the years it was offered, the overachiever received a free bottle of Coca Cola from Harry and his family. Lining up at the back of the plant the day after the issuance of said Report Cards, kids were handed one bottle, two bottles, three bottles and it was, indeed, a happy sight to behold. The kids (brothers and sisters/nieces and nephews) who were still living with Mom and Dad while I was in school loved it when I took my little red wagon to Tylers Bottling Works to pick up my "loot!" The Report Cards? I still have them among my "treasures" and a Diet Coke with Splenda is beside me as I write this.

And in telling you this little story about my contribution to the Cranston household during the Depression Years, 75 or so years too late, I am also saying "Thank you, Harry Tyler!" for a truly unselfish and generous spirit ... any "self-esteem" I may have as an adultish-type person in 2010 began its journey when my brothers Bennie, Dutch, Perle and Kenny took a swig of "my contribution" and declared, "Good job, Little One!" (So, I'll be thanking you for that one too!)