Well, here I am (in April), and instead of exploiting the
best digging weather of the year, I’m out chasing “cold weather” leads. Fortunately those leads were fruitful! I added a McKenna Bros. Providence, RI blob. This example has a period after Providence.
My second lead promised “150 or so soda and liquor
bottles”. Well, that turned into about
250 bottles, and the price didn’t change!
Although the bottles were located in central Connecticut,
there was a whole box full of Westerly,
RI sodas. To my delight that included a
few rarities. One was a King Westerly, RI quart. Quite common in the smaller sizes, this was
the first quart I have seen.
Another nice surprise was a New England Bottling Co. Westerly, RI crown
top. This nice aqua version has “8 Fluid
Ounces” embossed above the slugplate. It
is a very odd place to emboss the capacity, and is consequently unlisted.
One of the rarest Westerly sodas is the Lawton Bottling Works Westerly,
RI crown top. This is a completely
unlisted bottle.
Another exciting find was a Moose Head Beverages Inc. Providence pyroglazed seltzer
bottle. The Moose Head ACL (applied
color label) sodas are very hard to get, and the seltzers are no exception.
