Ending soon! From Blair Matthews, Editor of Soda Pop Dreams Magazine : For the month of March, I am doing a special for new subscribers to subscribe to Soda Pop Dreams Magazine for only $14.95 US funds with PayPal at the website.. This is a cool savings of $6 off the regular subscription price. Don't miss out!

From Larry Ganfill : Coke signs, Porcelain on Steel - I have several new very large and heavy Coke signs, made of Porcelain Enamel bonded to heavy 18 gauge steel. Production was limited to 5000 and, each sign is numbered. At the time of manufacture, American Company factory had approved licensing by Coke, but has since lost it. I have sold several on EBay. Supplies are limited and I can't promise specific numbering. Will sell for $140.00 plus S&H - which is around $20.00. I can make arrangements for multiple purchase discounts. Contact me > by email < Thanks

From Matt Dempsey : Let's Trade ACLs - FOR TRADE/SALE: SMILE (O/W/L and L/W-Orangehead character) , TORAH (quart O/B-Mtn. Scene), COCA COLA (multi diamond ACL r/w in rough shape $50 or trade), DESERT COOLER (g/tan-Cowboy, horse), Sunnyside (O/G/W-Sun), Smarty (amber glass R/W/Y), Squeeze (R/Y and green glass R/W), PEPSI (Double dot R/W/L), Barron's (R/W-King), Blue Ribbon (L/W-Ribbon), New Yorker (R/W/B-Couple in formal attire), COCA COLA bottle shaped thermometer form the early 1980s-$50 (in nice shape), Lots of common and a few less common TENNESSEE ACLS, Newer STEWART'S bottles and QUARTS, BOYLANS RB, A&W and more

From "CheroMike" : Wanted. Chero-Cola Florida bottles all issues all grades: Defuniak Springs, Malone, Miami, Perry, and St. Petersburg. Contact: Michael Elling, 4042 Sidonia, Sharon, TN 38255. 731-973-4995; or by E-mail.

From Matt Dempsey : I need the following: from Tennessee (ASPRN O/W/L, GILLIAM 6oz, DOUGHBOY), also Cleo Cola exposed navel, Tom Sawyer 8 oz., LEMMY (L/W), TRY ME O/Cream-heavily embossed, SUBLEY'S BIG NICKEL COLA r/w/l, NEHI R/W/Y butterfly label, CRUSH g/w-green glass and more. Thanks

From Brad : I will buy ACL soda bottles with pictures on them. E-mail me with your list, as well as prices. Thanks!

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

Coca-Cola and Turner Network Televion are launching "Diet Coke Movie Fest" in April for eight weekends on the TNT cable channel. Special Diet Coke commercials will be aired before and after each movie. The movies include: The Thomas Crown Affair, Grease, Rocky, Field of Dreams, Major League, Top Gun, Lethal Weapons 2, and the American President. 

Duke University’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy will receive $1 million from the Coca-Cola Foundation to fund the Multimedia and Instructional Technology Center at the Sanford Institute’s new building. The gift honors former Duke trustee and Coca-Cola board member Susan Bennett King, who also serves on the Sanford Institute’s board of visitors. 

From Steamboat Willie, Sweden : This year (2003) it will be an even 50 years since Coca-Cola was introduced in Sweden. Hopefully that will mean several jubilee events.  They have issued a special jubilee glass bottle. It's a 25 cl standard glass bottle - not the kind we usually see in Sweden since they are larger and hold 33 cl - probably bottled in Germany,  but with a special crown cap with the text "Coca-Cola Jubileumsflaska" (Coca-Cola Jubilee Bottle) on it.

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

Coke execs are just the latest in a long, greedy line
by C. Richardson
Submitted by Cecil Munsey

It is sometimes comforting to read the half-full-glass crowd, which, when it takes note of the rolling corporate scandals, goes quickly on to say that these matters have happened before, they're cyclical, and that Business Will Rise Again In Full Integrity.

One can only hope. But the scandals go on ---- they're a dirge by now ---- and what is worse, corporations seem stubbornly determined these very late days to march right on in venality, fleecing and hoodwinking shareholders, employees and the public.

Sometimes the arrogance is breathtaking; have they, at last, no shame?

Here is the latest example. In Atlanta, it was disclosed in a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that in 2002, while Coca-Cola Co.'s net income dropped and it laid off 1,900 employees in the United States and Germany, the company chairman, Doug Daft, got a $4 million bonus on top of his $1.5 million salary.

That was a bonus hike of half-a-million smackers from the year before. It bears repeating: Coke's profits fell by 22.5 percent in 2002, and the chief executive officer got a reward of $4 million for serving as captain of the ship. This is a unique business philosophy. Extending its logic, had profits dropped by 50 percent, it can be assumed that the bonus would have been in the $10 million range.

Or consider the vice chairman, somebody named Brian Dyson. He got a bonus of $1.5 million, while the previous year, he saw only $875,000 at Christmastime. 

Coke's president and chief operating officer, Steven Heyer, got a $2 million bonus, also up half a mill from 2001.

Perhaps a trifle mindful of the vulgarity of these figures, the company issued a statement to the Associated Press: "Mr. Daft led the company through considerable progress over the past year in achieving ... strong
financial results, growing our brands, strengthening our bottler relationships, and building our leadership team."

These are not the only examples of titanic remuneration to executives whose ships are listing badly. But they will do to raise ire and eyebrows.

Perception is reality. It does not matter how a corporation explains such bonuses and gaudy salaries in a time of downturn. Maybe a serious case can be made that Daft and his leftenants deserved the money. But the public perception is that they are grotesquely greedy. It appears on the face of things that they don't care about other employees or other scandals. They give not a fig for such bourgeois niceties as integrity, judicious behavior, decency, moderation. They're just grabbing the dough. That is reality.

You would think that after all that business has been through with the lamentable creatures of Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, ImClone, Arthur Andersen, Tyco, Peregrine ---- oh, what a list ---- that executives would somehow get a grip on themselves, maybe fake integrity and hold down the trips to the
cookie jar. If they have not heard the cries of the multitudes of laid-off workers, don't they at least fear the clang of the cell doors?

Your opinion? E-mail it to My Opinion

March 29 (Saturday) Tarentum, Pennsylvania 
Western Reserve Insulator Club’s Spring Show
(Sat 9am–3pm) at the Heritage Museum
224 E. 7th Ave., Tarentum, Pennsylvania
INFO: RON BARTH, 203 South 2nd St., Apollo, PA 15613
PH: (724) 478-5299, E-mail: rktbarth@kiski.net 

March 30 (Sunday) Syracuse, New York
Empire State Bottle Collectors Association's 33rd Annual Show & Sale
(Sun 9am-3pm) at American Legion Valley Post #1468
110 Academy (just off Route 80, Valley Dr.), Syracuse, New York
INFO: JIM or GINNY KLERING, 4831 Cedarvale Rd., Syracuse, NY 13215, PH: (315) 468-0416
or JOHN SPELLMAN, P. O. Box 61, Savannah, NY 13146, PH: (315) 365-3156
E-mail: spellmanjc@ny.tds.net; Web-site: http://www.esbca.org 

The Third Annual Convention of the French Coca-Cola Collectors Club will be held in Avignon the 29th and 30th of March, 2003. For more information, contact Michel Houche, E-mail : michelhouche@wanadoo.fr 

Springtime in Atlanta - April 16-19, 2003
at the Crowne Plaza, Atlanta, GA
For information, E-mail Karleen : GACOKE@aol.com 
Events will include: Regular Auction, Silent Auction, Swap Meet, Brunch & Banquet.

Branson: Fall Fever in the Ozarks October 23 - 25, 2003, at the Settle Inn Branson, MO
Arkansas & Oklahoma's Green Country Chapters will be co-sponsoring the first ever Coca-Cola event in Branson. For information email Ken: beartul@earthlink.net 

Any new events  in your area? Mail so all of us can know, to: Upcoming Events

By Michael M. Elling

Despite woeful weather forecasts, the Saturday, March 15, 2003, Deland, FL, 33rd Annual Bottle Show and Sale opened to a strong gathering of 88 dealer tables sold, and an estimated attendance of 250 people. Bad weather and war fears were looming, but the 9am opening included plenty of warm sunshine for the free admission, free parking show at the Volusia County Fairgrounds in Deland. The sponsors of the show, the "M-T" (for empty) Bottle Collectors Association of central Florida, provided their renown traditional Friday night setup and dinner for all dealers and exhibitors.

Exhibits were up this year, according to show chairperson Mrs. Moreen Pallash, who was only momentarily distracted by a slight downturn in dealer tables from nearly 100 last year. This year's exhibits included:

• Les and Francis Staul's display of decorated Whisky and Avon bottles
• Mike & Betty Jordan's display of Ball Fruit Jars from 1909 to 1962
• James Hurley's Coca-Cola Family Packaging For Convenience Carrier Display 1940 to 1976
• Oscar Brock's near complete display of Florida Automobile License Plates 1915 to 1975
• Mike Elling's display of Florida Chero-Cola Bottlers, 1912 to 1947

Judges chose the display awards on the basis of educational importance and it was the Jordan's Ball Fruit Jars that took the trophy. The exhibit features a strong selection of transitional jars when the Ball Company moved from their original Buffalo, New York location to their Muncie, Indiana location prior to World War 1. The runner up was a new display of Chero-Cola soda bottles issued by Florida bottlers from the years 1912 to 1947. Mike Elling, of Sharon, Tennessee, brought the display down as the guest of club member Pascal Pancratz of Altamonte Springs. The bottlers included were: Bradentown (sic), Chipley, Jacksonville, Jasper, Lakeland, Live Oak, Mariana, Newberry, Ocala, Orlando, Palatka, Panama City, Pensacola, Sanford, Tallahassee, and Tampa. Known bottlers absent from Elling's display are Defuniak Springs, Malone, Miami, Perry, and St. Petersburg.

Chris Wiede of Jacksonville, FL, was one of the notable painted label soda bottle collectors present. He found a scarce Dietetic Squeeze in yellow/red 10 oz clear glass. This early cyclamate bottle is mould dated by Glenshaw Glass as 1963, and is from Adams, Mass. He also found a scarce 7 oz Jockey Club in red/white label, clear glass from the Hammonton, New Jersey bottler. The label features a proud jockey atop horse and is mould dated by Owens-Illinois at 1953. Chris went on to say that he saw a very early prewar Salutaris Scotch Nip in just 4 oz green glass. It has embossed lettering at the base and a white label name at the middle and was dated 1940!

Several early Coca-Cola bottles were offered and prices for very early amber glass examples were tagged at just $50.00! The dealer that had these explained that the demand for early cokes seems dormant for now.

Two soda reference books were available at the show. There was Georgia Crown Top Soda Bottles by Carl Barnett and Ken Nease. The book is spiral bound paperback with a stunning 260 pages of over 1400 bottles pictured from various Georgia bottlers. These include 263 different Coca-Cola straight sided (pre-1915) bottles and an unprecedented 236 different Chero-Cola bottles. This is the first such reference to ever compile a listing of these bottlers. In addition, some 15 other Georgia brands are included. This is a must have reference of the most prolific soda bottler state in history! This work is privately published and is $43.90 postpaid in the US from: Georgia Soda Book, 1211 St. Andrews Dr., Douglas, GA 31533.

The second book offered at the show is Embossed Soda Bottles of Florida, by David A. Collins who was present at the show gathering information for a second revision of his book which is a work in progress. Currently, his first edition is available in paperback, 16 pages, for $8.00 plus postage from David Collins, P.O. Box 250, Hawthorne, FL 32640. It is a listing by bottler/brand name; bottle style; color; height; and rarity. David requests that collectors of Florida Soda, check in with him to aid in expanding this much needed reference work.

Florida collectors seem to have much interest in commemorative Coca-Cola bottles of all series as several tables included many selections. The bargain of the day was a half-table full of quart and half-quart milk bottles tagged at $2.50 each.

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

Until next week, Happy Collecting! CokeGirl