GREEN COUNTRY CHATTER
AUGUST 8, 2010
NEWSLETTER OF
GREEN COUNTRY CHAPTER OF THE COCA COLA COLLECTORS CLUB
Produced & Edited By: Earlene Vickrey
E-mail Address: [email protected]
In our last newsletter I ask if everyone was ready for summer. Now I am asking have
you had enough of summer and are ready for fall?
Our last chapter meeting was held June 19, 2010 at Ken & Carole Cottrell's home. 12
members were present. We certainly enjoyed the Sub Sandwiches, Salads & oh yes the
Dessert.
The minutes were read and approved. We each got to take home a gift and Jennifer
Pointer won the Grand Prize.
The Fall Fever in Branson was our main topic. Plans are going very good and the Sept
11, 2010 meeting will be the final steps for our Branson Convention. We need as many
as possible to attend this to help with all the plans. Hope you have your reservation for
Branson? If you have problems booking reservations at the hotel please call Carole
Cottrell for help. We had some problems but we think they are solved.
We are raffling a crystal decanter & neon light. If you can't attend be sure and get your
raffle tickets at our Sept meeting.
We had our election and the same board was reelected. Doesn't anyone want the
newsletter job? My feelings wouldn't be hurt.
The Arkansas Club is still working very hard to keep their club active. If you would like
to join another club (including ours) & then join theirs to help them to keep enough
members to operate let them know. I know they would appreciate it.
Our show & tell was Ken Cottrell asking how to clean the inside of an empty bottle.
Some suggested CLR Cleaner.
Several of our members attended the National Convention in Milwaukee WI in July. If
you did not get to attend, then ask someone if they attended and ask how the trip was. If
you get the National Newsletter you will know. Thank goodness it ended on a high note
and everyone finally had a good time. It certainly will be an unforgettable Convention
and proof that the National Board does work hard to make our Convention good. Even
though sometimes the problems were out of the National Board's hands, they stayed on
top of them and at the end of the convention it was worth it. Start planning for next years
National Convention (after you have attended Branson's) and help support the National. I
don't have any pictures from National this year, so you will just have to imagine all the
fun we had. We did have a good turn out from our club there. I counted at least 22 just
off my head. Oh yes, Stan Vickrey won 2nd place at National on his Rum & Coke article
in our May Newsletter. (Congratulations Stan). Carole Cottrell won counting the
number of times that the little Jester appeared in the National Newsletter. She won first
choice where her auction item could be placed. Earlene Vickrey won counting the
number of times the word Coca-Cola was typed in the National Newsletter. She got a
free Banquet ticket. So you should enter the contests, because they can pay off. Second
thought, don't enter and that will help Carole & me. Ha! Ha!
Happy Birthdays: P. J. King (Aug 19), Ray Keeton (Aug 26), LW Bennett (Sept 2), Stan
Vickrey (Oct 4), Dell Nelson (Oct 8), Louise Holl (Oct 12), Annette Hunt (Oct 13), Hilda
King (Oct 17) & Jerry Swank (Oct 19).
Happy Anniversary: Kelly & Phyliss Real (Aug 22, 1992), Ken & Carole Cottrell (Aug
27, 1959), Stan & Earlene Vickrey (Sept 22, 1955).
The enthusiastic collectors grow daily, as many seek to unearth memorabilia. We search
for authentic finds, and since Coca-Cola has advertised extensively for many ears and is
purely American in concept, memorabilia associated with Coca-Cola have become some
of the most sought after collectibles. This growing interest, combined with the
comparative rarity of earlier items, has produced two effects: (1) the value of authentic
items has increased accordingly, and (2) the market has been deluged with reproductions
and new issues of early type advertising items which may have never existed as originals.
The "Duster Girl" tray was never a tray. Many reproductions and new issues are sold to
the collector as authentic, and often the quality & appearance are deceptive indicators of
value.
We have probably all been duped at least once by purchasing a reproduction for an
original, but we can perhaps justify it by commenting "but it looked so old." Aged
appearance can be achieved by a little steel wool, sandpaper, or weathering. We have
even heard of new trays being buried for short periods to create "instant old"! So always
be aware and if in doubt you could be right and do get more information if at all possible
and use your gut feeling.
History Lesson
Coca Cola in WW 2 Germany
Coca Cola had no successful presence overseas in the 1920's. In 1929 a man named Ray
Powers was sent to Germany to establish Coca Cola as a drink in that country.
Ray with one employee helped fill the first bottles and he walked the streets trying to sell
the product. Hard work began to pay off thru the years and Coke became very popular in
Germany. Ray Powers died of a car accident in 1938 and was replaced by German born
Max Keith (pronounced Kite). Max Keith is a very unusual person in Coca Cola history.
By 1939 Coke was selling 4 million cases a year in Germany and had 600 distributors.
Hitler in those years had placed strict limits on imports so that Germany would become
self sufficient. Keith was personally able to persuade Herman Goering to give him a
permit that continued to allow Coca Cola syrup to be imported. Production would have
stopped if not for this permit and was due to the secret ingredients which could not be
produced in Germany.
When war really broke out, the embargos on Germany stopped the import of syrup and
the production of Coca Cola was coming to an end. At this time Max Keith made an
unusual move. He invented a new drink made primarily from Whey (yes whey) and
pomace .Pomace is the remains of apples, grapes, olives and other fruit after it has been
pressed for the juice. His drink was made mainly from apple pomace and was sweetened
with beet sugar and had a slight lemon flavor. When completed a name was needed. As
Max said “this invention is fantastic” & one of his salesmen shouted out FANTA and the
name was made.
Fanta became successful and by 1943 was selling 3 million cases per year in the war torn
country. For Max Keith, the main thing that Fanta did was keep the Coca Cola plants
open and employees working thru the war years.
At the end of the war Max reestablished the coke plants almost immediately. Coca-Cola
had little contact with Max during the war and received a lot of criticism for continuing
as a U.S. working company in Germany during the war. Max was then investigated to
see if he had become a member of the Nazi party. Even though he was under a lot of
pressure, he never became a Nazi. He could have become very rich because of Fanta but
instead turned over all the profits to Coca Cola after the war.
Coke eventually brought Fanta to the U.S. and some think that the lemon flavor Fanta
became Sprite.
Today Fanta has over 90 flavors in 190 countries. In the U.S. we see Orange, Grape,
Orange Zero, Strawberry, Peach, Pineapple, Grapefruit and Apple.
A popular drink started under unusual circumstances by a man who would not give up.
The Prez Sez
Ok, so we are a little late getting out the newsletter to you but we had good excuses. Stan
& Earlene are still trying to get their house back together after the hailstorm in May and
Carole & I have been working on getting our old house ready to sell. It seems like we
have been working for days getting it updated. It has been & still is so hot since we got
back from Milwaukee. It was hot there also. Try it for a few days without air
conditioning. As Earlene indicated Milwaukee ended on a positive note.
Our chapter raffle for the perpetual calendar brought in about $165 (don’t have exact
figure) & was won by Audrey Leech of Alliance, OH. The Fall Fever raffle for 2 free
nights in Branson was won by Jim House of Snellville, GA. We want to thank everyone
for buying tickets as the raffles are our only fundraisers other than at the Fall Fever event.
I also want to thank our chapter members that helped sell the raffle tickets on Chapter
night.
I hope all of you are excited about Fall Fever in the Ozarks this year. It will be a fun time
as always. Be sure to get your registrations in soon if you haven’t already done so.
I don’t have any words of wisdom this time other than stay cool, stay safe & drink lots of
water. Our next meeting will be September 11th. Make plans now to attend. One other
note, the national meeting for 2012 will be in Springfield, MO. That will be about as
close as it will ever be to many of you. Start making plans now for it.
Hint for the day:
Did you know that Colgate Toothpaste makes an excellent salve for burns?
Oklahoma Trivia: Love the summer? Try Poolville, Ok, & Sunray Ok.
Want Something to Eat? Try Corn Ok, Grainola Ok, Olive Ok, South Coffeeville, Ok,
Sweetwater Ok, & Cookietown, Ok.
President: Ken Cottrell
Sec & Treas: Martha Swank
Newsletter Editor: Earlene Vickrey
Vice President: Ray Keeton
Website: Jennifer Pointer
www.greencountrychapter.com