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f/8 and Be There
Fred Lynch
Fred Lynch retired in 2018 after capturing images for the Southeast Missourian since 1975, in that time moving from black-and-white to color, from film to digital and to video. The blog title is a nod to an earlier era of news photography and the 4x5 Speed Graphic: It's more important to be there for the shot than to worry about technical details.
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Pepsi truck wreck

Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010, at 7:30 AM

Sharon Sanders found this picture was published Dec. 17, 1957. The photos were taken by G.D. Fronabarger.

Here is the caption:

Where two were fatally injured today in a truck-car collision on Highway 61 south of Kelso. The picture was made looking down a hill toward the north, and on a slight curve toward the west. Kelso is a mile to the north. In the ditch at the left is the soda water truck. The car, almost hidden, is attached to a James wrecker at the right. The Pepsi-Cola truck at the right arrived after the accident. At the left is Sheriff John Dennis of Scott County.

The inset picture was published the next day:

The soda water truck from Sikeston figured in a crash on Highway 61 north of Benton in the rain on Tuesday (Dec. 17) morning at 8:40. Also involved in the accident was an automobile driven by Miss Geraldine Armstrong, 17, of Painton. She and her mother, Mrs. Lloyd Armstrong, 58 years old, were fatally injured.

The slogan on the trucks, "Refresh Without Filling," was used by Pepsi during the late 1950s.

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  • Another really cool photo. I enjoy this feature of the semissourian.

    -- Posted by bobby62914 on Wed, Feb 17, 2010, at 9:41 AM

  • I worked a beer truck crash on 3 near Gale and Thebes. The truck's brakes failed and he ended up in a ditch.

    Witnesses said the first cars to leave the scene were so heavily loaded that their frames were almost dragging the ground.

    I got back to the office smelling like I had bathed in a brewery from being sprayed by popping cans of beer.

    I'll have to put those on my list of photos to publish.

    -- Posted by ksteinhoff on Wed, Feb 17, 2010, at 9:45 AM

  • I have only lived in the Cape area for about 15 years. I love reading and seeing photos of what it looked like before. Keep it up. I look forward to your pictures.

    -- Posted by mdonze on Wed, Feb 17, 2010, at 2:13 PM

  • I might be wrong, but I think the Sikeston Pepsi plant didn't deliver north of Scott City back then, as there was a Pepsi plant in Cape at that time right? If so, then this could be somewhere around Kelso - heading towards Benton?

    -- Posted by gomer on Wed, Feb 17, 2010, at 7:44 PM

  • I concur Gomer; it appears to me to be looking northward just after the New Hamburg turnoff on US 61.

    -- Posted by Hugh M Bean on Thu, Feb 18, 2010, at 1:54 PM

  • Being a history buff, in my opinion, the best part of the SE Missourian web site is your blog. I look forward to seeing what old photos of Cape you will post next. It is sad though to see how much of the downtown is gone and replaced with parking lots.

    -- Posted by Le Cercle Rouge on Sat, Feb 20, 2010, at 3:53 PM

  • I think you are exactly right Bean it appears to be right around that area

    -- Posted by semo2014 on Sat, Feb 20, 2010, at 8:55 PM

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