DaveB wrote:We used to have the 'Pop man' come round once a fortnight if I remember right. My dad found the bottles handy for home brewed beer
We had the same service where I grew up too (North Staffs) and I remember begging and pleading with my mother for months until she finally gave in and said we could buy pop from him. My favourites were American Cream Soda and Dandelion and Burdock if I remember correctly.
Dad never brewed beer but Mum would make home made ginger beer by the gallon. That is until we had a disaster while away camping with the Scouts one year (Dad was a Scoutmaster and Mum used to go to camp as the cook). She had 24 quart bottles of ginger beer she'd made just prior to leaving on the trip and one must have been a bit 'active' when she set them down to 'mature' on the pantry floor. We came home from the trip and were greeted by a gawd awful stink throughout the whole house! One of the bottles had obviously exploded due to a build up of gas and that set the other 23 off in sympathy! Six gallons of ginger beer had seeped out of the pantry and into the carpeting of the kitchen and hallway and then started to ferment and grow mold during the two weeks we were away. The carpet and underlay were a write off and it took days of scrubbing the floors with bleach before the stink finally went away. She never made ginger beer again after that but years later took up home made wine making using everything except grapes and then the house was full of bubbling demijohns everywhere you looked. She's 86 now, still lives alone in the house I was born in, and apparently still has at least 20 gallons of home made wine sitting around the house.
Yup.. I liked the 'green' one too.. whatever it was but now you've mentioned it, cream soda was my fave I can see the lorry now (not literally of course). Can't remember the trading name though. It's close but it just won't come
Wonder if it was a 'local' thing Larry? I'm now living in the same house I lived in as a kid which until the early-mid 70's was South Staffs. Going through the memento's folk leave behind when they go, I found a pile of letters I'd written to mom and dad when a young pup in the Navy and many of them had Staffs in the address. Coincidental that it's exactly a year to the day (28th) since dad died. Where has that year gone to?
EDIT.. A quick google has produced 'Alpine'.. that sounds about right
ATB
DaveB
In those days, very little was imported and it was about 90 percent locally made and I guess that would have been similar in your area too Dave.
Long gone now, the drinks producers were quite old firms going back to the Victorian times when such things had to be made locally.
They continued in business until the 1980's but by then they were bottling major brands supplied by tanker sometimes in concentrated form but the death knell started with the non return bottles and more and more was brought in ready to go and direct to supermarkets and the like so the soft drink companies lost the agencies too.
Garry
"In the world of virtual reality things are not always what they seem."
Indeed mate.. NRB's have a lot to answer for. By the time I left the pub trade all those days ago ( ) everything we had delivered in bottles was NRB.. no exceptions. It made it easier for me and easier for the draymen I guess.. the only thing going back on any delivery being empty kegs/barrels and/or used cooking oil which was recycled.
ATB
DaveB
DaveB wrote:I can see the lorry now (not literally of course). Can't remember the trading name though. It's close but it just won't come
I'm having the exact same problem. I seem to remember the lorries were yellow with red lettering and were the Bedford type with the curved glass panels in the front of the cab at floor/shin level. I could never understand as a kid why you would want windows there.
DaveB wrote:Wonder if it was a 'local' thing Larry?
It certainly seems like it was a county wide thing but I don't know if anywhere else had a pop delivery like that.
I much regret that the flavour of 'Ice Cream Soda' and R White's 'Lemonade' has been changed. Ginger beer of many makers is still a favourite.
A glass of Lemonade or Ice Cream Soda with a scoop of ice cream on top was a treat! I was shocked to see that an ice cream cornet is now priced at £1.50 (thirty bob!), used to be 3d. I also regret that ice cream between two rectangular wafers seems to have vanished.
In the early 1980s I spent many a holiday trying to find an ice cream parlour which still made 'Knickerbocker Glories' to buy for our two sons - tall glass, long spoon full of fruit, fruit syrup and ice cream, delicious! I finally tracked one down on the Isle of Wight. My stock certainly went up on thaty occasion because I think the boys thought I had been kidding them for years.
Corona,as mentioned by Rich,was a regular deliverer and more locally to the Nottingham area I think was Jones' soft drinks.If you are really interested I can also remember some of the names of the local ice cream vendors! EricT
Now at the age where I know I like girls but can't remember why!
I can see the lorry now (not literally of course). Can't remember the trading name though. It's close but it just won't come 
EricT