PEPSI MEMORIES: NOSTALGIA FUELS MAN'S COLLECTION

Being involved in the wholesale grocery business, it's only natural that Darrell Long of Cape Girardeau should have an extensive collection of old Pepsi-Cola advertising memorabilia.

Long, 45, is president of the Scott City Distribution Division of Wetterau Foods, Inc. He was born in Oklahoma, but moved to Marble Hill at age 13, when his father began working at the Natural Gas Pipeline Corp.'s Gravel Hill compressor station.

Long began collecting Pepsi-Cola advertising items after meeting Gary Bunting, another student at Southeast Missouri State University. "Gary has collected advertising signs all his life. In fact, he sold me a beer sign in 1973, which is part of my collection. It was the first sign I ever bought and is what got me started," Long says.

Many of the signs, thermometers and wall clocks in his collection were commonly seen in stores that sold Pepsi-Cola.

Long says he decided to collect Pepsi-Cola advertising items made prior to the early 1950s because they are more scarce.

"I always had a liking for Coca Cola, but as I traveled around, I found that Coca Cola advertising items were very common. I made the shift to Pepsi because back in the 1930s and 1940s, Pepsi-Cola didn't have as much money to advertise as Coca Cola. As a result, Pepsi did not produce as much advertising as Coca Cola," Long explains.

Like its competitor, Pepsi-Cola has its roots in the late 1800s, when a pharmacist named Caleb Bradham created the original soft drink formula at his drug store in New Bern, N.C. In 1898, Bradham named the drink Pepsi-Cola, and on Dec. 30, 1902, the Pepsi-Cola Co. was formed. The familiar Pepsi-Cola trademark was patented in 1903.

In 1923, the company was forced into bankruptcy and was eventually purchased by a Long Island candy company in 1931. By this time, Pepsi-Cola had all but disappeared.

As a result of the effort of the president of the candy company, Charles G. Guth, Pepsi-Cola made a comeback in the mid-1930s, when it started selling 12-ounce bottles of the beverage at the six-ounce price of five cents.

At the same time, Guth instituted an aggressive advertising campaign that included the first "stand alone" radio jingle of its day. In October 1939, Pepsi first aired the radio jingle that was to become a part of the American lifestyle for the next decade:

Pepsi-Cola hits the spot

12 full ounces that's a lot,

twice as much for a nickel too.

Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you.

Today, the radio jingles and other Pepsi print, radio, and point-of-purchase advertising items are collector's pieces, in addition to hundreds of other Pepsi-Cola advertising specialities.

The oldest item in Long's collection is an unused 1908 Pepsi-Cola bottling cap with cork lining. He also has a Pepsi-Cola fountain pen, and a variety of Pepsi-Cola bottles, wooden cases, trays, metal signs, thermometers, wall clocks and a 1940s era porcelain, chilled-water Pepsi cooler.

Long started his collection of Pepsi-Cola advertising products 20 years ago partly because of his work. "Being in the grocery business, I collect a lot of grocery-related items," he said. In addition to the Pepsi collection, Long also has many other pieces, including a brass cash register, similar to those found in neighborhood grocery stores.

When he began collecting Pepsi-Cola advertising pieces, Long decided to purchase only those made before the early 1950s. "The newer stuff is easy to find, and I only have so much space for my collection, so I tried to get more definite in what I was looking for," he explains.

Long says most of his Pepsi collection has come from within a three-state area.

"Some of it was purchased at the antique advertising shows that are held each year in Indianapolis, the rest came from weekend buying trips. I didn't have to travel very far, but it's taken me 20 years to collect what I have," he says.

Long found some of his quality collection pieces closer to home, including a Pepsi sign that was purchased at an auction in Perryville, and other signs that were located at flea markets in Murphysboro and Belleville, Ill., and an antique store in St. Louis.

His most prized item, a Pepsi-Cola neon sign, came from an antique dealer in Potosi, where he also purchased a Pepsi chilled-water cooler.

"The neon sign is rare. ... I've never seen another like it, and it's in like-new condition. The sign was manufactured for Pepsi-Cola and given to their wholesale customers," he explained.

Another favorite piece of Long's is the all-porcelain, water-chilled Pepsi-Cola cooler that was manufactured in the 1940s. The soda bottles were set upright in chilled water up to the bottle necks.

The chilled water cooler recalls memories of walking into a neighborhood grocery store, or a wooden-floor country store, on a summer afternoon and reaching inside the cooler to pull out a dripping wet bottle. The price was a nickel a bottle, plus two cents deposit.

"I think that's why people like to collect stuff like this. It's nostalgia. People try to capture and relive some of the good things they remember from the past," Long said.

Other items in Long's collection are glass soda bottles, including those made during World War II. Before the war, the bottles had the embossed Pepsi-Cola logo printed on the front.

During the war, the company first produced bottles with a red, white and blue embossed Pepsi logo. Later in the war, they switched to paper labels. Long says Pepsi-Cola also encouraged the recycling of bottle caps during the war years. One paper label bottle in his collection has a label on the neck of the bottle asking consumers to put the bottle cap back on the bottle when it is returned.

During the war years, Pepsi also came out with canvas, six-pack carrying bags that replaced the paper containers.

In the early 1950s, Pepsi-Cola made minor changes in its familiar Pepsi-Cola bottle logo. Long says at that time, the company replaced the double dash between Pepsi and Cola with a single dash. Since then, the company has quit using the traditional logo for its more modern "Pepsi" logo.

Long says prices for Pepsi-Cola pieces are about the same as other antique items in scarce supply. "They have really escalated in the last ten years," he adds. "When I started my collection 20 years ago, they were already high. As the old saying goes, if I had known then what I know now, I would have bought a lot more. Prices on items that are in real good condition have just gone right out of sight."

Pepsi-Cola collectors use a catalogue, "Pepsi-Cola Collectibles," to assist them in obtaining pieces for their collection. The book is revised frequently by the publisher in Gas City, Ind.

"When I started collecting, there was nothing like this publication. The first one didn't come out until 1980," Long said.

Long is still looking for new pieces to add to his collection. "If I find something I'm looking for, I'll buy it. My friends are also watching out for Pepsi items," he notes. "Right now, I'm looking for a couple of Pepsi neon clock signs and a Pepsi tray that was made in the 1940s."