The "Mountain Dew Mystery"

"BIG JIM-LITTLE JIM", "JAKE AND DAISY DEW", "MAW & PAW"... who were these names from the past, and just how did they find their place in history by appearing on the labels of Mountain Dew soda bottles?

"ONE THAT'S ABLE, SAYS MABLE" certainly makes you wonder who Mable was and what she was able to do! Such is the nature of the mysteries surrounding that Mountain Dew bottles that were filled in the 1960's.

Most of the bottles reported where location markings are available on the bottle came from Iowa and North Carolina, but a few have surfaced from Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. A few rare varieties have been cataloged from Canada to give the mystery a little international flavor.

All except one of the bottles listed are green glass. The one exception is a 7 ounce clear glass, "BY BARNEY AND ALLY". Another one of a kind is also a "BY BARNEY AND ALLY". It is a 7 ounce, green glass from Tennessee with a 1951 base mark date. It would appear that this bottle is a reconditioned 7UP bottle, as other dating information leads to the conclusion that the bottles were probably filled from 1962 to about 1967.

The most common bottle size is 10 ounce. A few 12 and 16 ounce bottles have been reported, along with the very rare 7, 8, and 9 ounce varieties.

One might speculate that the names represent employees of the bottling companies or their kin. Prefixes such as "BOTTLED BY", "FILLED BY", "CAPPED BY", and "JUGGED BY" support this theory.

Many unanswered questions remain... How were the names chosen? How many bottling companies participated? And most intriguing... How many different names are just lying around waiting to be collected?

If any of you readers can shed some light on this mystery, please share that information for a future edition. SHEDDING SOME LIGHT

Kendall's first acquisition was a merger with the Frito-Lay Company of Dallas, Texas. This merger resulted in the renaming of the company to PepsiCo in 1965. Pepsi-Cola then became a division of PepsiCo.

By 1974, there were 400 bottlers of Pepsi-Cola and other Pepsi products operating in the United States. By the time Donald Kendall retired in 1986, the Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants had been added to the PepsiCo portfolio, and sales had climbed to almost nine-billion dollars.

In 1986, Wayne Calloway stepped in as CEO of PepsiCo.

The rest of the story is "Future" rather than "History".  Stay tuned to see if Pepsi finally wins the battle with Coca-Cola for the #1 soft drink seller spot.

CLICK HERE to see a listing and pictures of Mountain Dew Bottles.

CLICK HERE to see Mountain Dew ads in Ad Art Gallery