Coca-Cola Coolers

Some great photos here from the Vintage Vending archives. These pictures are from a Coca Cola salesman’s book of coolers he sold in California in the late 30’s early 40’s. It looks like after the cooler was on location he took some pictures and put them in a scrapbook.

He recorded the name of the business and the address on the page with the picture. All of the Coca-Cola coolers are Westinghouse models but the coolers are not the most interesting things in the photos.

Along with the cooler are great pictures of Gilmore and Texaco gas stations, grocery stores, factories and more. The pictures offer a glimpse of life in Southern California a long time ago. If you live in California and are familiar with the addresses it would be interesting to write in and tell us what is on that location now or if any of the businesses are still around. Hope you enjoy them.

They can also be viewed and downloaded from our PDF library.

Alpha Beta Market Display 116 E. Chapman Ave. Orange, CA

Baxter Crowe 590 Coast Blvd. So. Laguna, CA

Brock Glass Co. Ltd. 202 Santa Fe Santa Ana CA

Don Hobbs 1001 S. Spadra Rd. Fullerton, CA

Preston & Cox 405 D. St. Tustin, CA Grocery Store

The Careful Laundry 1606 S. Main Santa Ana CA

Alpha Beta Market 116 E. Chapman Ave. Orange, CA

Arch Beach Market 1910 S. Coast Laguna, CA

Arch Beach Market 1910 S. Coast Laguna, CA Photo 2

Balboa Yacht Basin Balboa Island, CA

Chiksan Tool Co. 330 N. Pomona Ave. Brea, CA

Edwards Brothers Gas Station 102 N. Broadway Santa Ana CA

Frank Angel 17th & Green Leaf Santa Ann, CA

George Gelser 520 Ocean Blvd. Huntington Beach, CA Texaco Gas Station

Hiway Garage 1749 Newport Blvd Costa MESA, CA Gilmore Gas Station

I. D. Wallingford Bolsa, CA Grocery Store

J. E. Tracy 212 W. Central La Habra, CA Grocery Store

James Flying Service at Fullerton Airport Fullerton, CA

McCoy Mills 124 W. Commonwealth Fullerton, CA

Patton & Oman 400 D St. Tustin, CA Gilmore Gas Station

R. E. Doss 17th & Greenleaf Santa Ana, CA Macmillan Gas Station

Ray Berney 323 S. Spadra Rd. Fullerton, CA

Towner Manufacturing Co. 2111 W. 17th St. Santa Ana CA

Withers Brothers Packing House Placentia, CA

 Coca-Cola Truck and Car Paint Schemes

Coca Cola did not become one of the worlds most recognized brands by accident. From day one they spent lots of time and money developing their identity. Every year or when needed the company would put out standardization bulletins covering how everything with the Coca-Cola name should look. The Coca-Cola logo & look needed to be the same worldwide on everything. Stationary, checks, uniforms and of course trucks. Trucks were and still are an important way for Coca-Cola to advertise. Here are some pages from two different years, 1957 and 1948 on how Coca Cola trucks and cars should be painted. Hope you enjoy them.

To view larger photos and to print, please visit our PDF Library under Vintage Vending Archives

Coca-Cola Truck Painting 1948

Coca-Cola Truck Painting Standard Scheme

Coca-Cola Standard Truck Body Paint Theme

Coke 1948 Car Painting

1957 Coca-Cola Truck Paint Scheme

1957 Coca-Cola Truck Paint Scheme #2

Coca-Cola Truck Painting 1957 #3

Coca-Cola Truck Painting 1957 #4

Coca-Cola Truck Painting 1957 #5

Coca-Cola Car Painting 1957

Let it Snow!

February 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of the Blizzard Of ‘78. Arguably New England’s “Storm of the Century,” the Blizzard of ‘78 dumped 30 plus inches of snow on the area, paralyzing Boston and surrounding suburbs for a week. The snow fell for a full 33 hours and at times as much as 4 inches an hour. Even worse were the hurricane force winds and high tides that devastated the New England coastline.

Over 3,000 cars were found abandoned on the highways during the clean up which took about a week to complete. My memory of the storm was almost becoming one of those who had to abandon their cars on route 93.

A friend of mine had a job somewhere down around Route 128 in Woburn, MA. On February 6th with the storm cranking along he decides to work some overtime. By the time he leaves he is going nowhere in his Firebird so he gives me a call for a ride. Well my Father was not about to let me ride off into the storm so he volunteers to drive me down and pick him up. Talk about a long, white knuckled ride. We made it but just barely. Route 93 was nothing but a couple of ruts by the time we got back to Salem, NH sometime around midnight.

Have any memories of the “Blizzard of ‘78” ? Let us know.