Michigan Collection

 This is the collection of the Allen family in Michigan. I am sharing it with permission of Cory Allen.  You can contact Corey Allen at clallendds@gmail.com.  There are some old and unique items. My thanks to Corey for sharing this.

A quote from Corey: We began collecting about 20 years ago when my parents bought a rootbeer stand (an old BK franchise) from my grandparents.  It was simply something we did for fun as a family and it allowed us to display the items at the restaurant.  We have not added much to the collection for many years as my brother and I left for college and then careers, but my parents still display most of what we have left.  Several items were sold when the restaurant was sold about 2 years ago.  The rootbeer stand was renamed to Allen's Rootbeer Drive In in Coldwater, Michigan and has now been renamed again to Short's but can still be found online.

Tom's Root Beer Collection

Hello everyone.  It has been a while since I blogged.  I have added so much to my Root Beer collection that it is hard for me to even start.  I thought the best way to do it would be to display lots of pictures and add a few words at the bottom of some to point out things of interest. At least of interest to me.

I would like to thank my special friend, Vince Payne, from Iowa. I got many bottles and cans from him that I would have never found anywhere else.

In total I have about 150 mugs, 203 cans, 465 bottles and many many misc. items like Hires Baseball cards, old drug store advertising cards, bottle caps, 4 and 6 pack carriers, signs, candy, extract, glasses, boxes, syrup cans and dispensers, T-Shirts, Ball caps, Gallon Jugs, Brewery Growlers and over 50 magazine advertisements.

So here goes, enjoy the pictures.

Older Bottle Case

I keep the older and more precious items here. The below two pictures give you close-ups of the contents.

My oldest bottle is a Hires from pre-1890 Lots of bottles from the 20's 30's 40's and 50's

MUGS

I now have over 150 different root beer mugs. I had to add some shelves to the wall because I outgrew the cabinets.  I think I need to add more shelves.

The cabinet on the right is all A&W mugs of different sizes and logo's. The cabinet on the left and the shelves are all other brands.

The pitcher and 6 mugs at the back all say Buckeye Pure on the bottom.

Barrel Dispenser

Every collection needs one of these.  They are not cheap but if you look hard enough you will find one that is affordable.

The Root Beer Room

Whenever people come to the house that know us they always ask to see the Root Beer Room. Of course I am more than happy to show it to them.  It is hard to get the proper effect of the room through a camera lens. The first picture is taken from the door into the room.  The I just walked around the room and took a bunch of pictures.

These two dispensers were both found in the Denver area. They were not cheap.  Of course my wife thinks I am crazy.

The A&W cooler is really cool.  I used it at our last Church Root Beer gathering. It has a handy drain in the back so once the ice melts you can just set it in a bath tub and let it drain. Very handy for basements

The Closet

I promised my wife I would only buy what I could display. So of course I have to keep adding display space. The Root Beer Room has a walk-in closet so I built some shelves and added more space.

I know there are many more platters, but these are the only ones I have seen and could afford to buy.

Thanks for viewing the blog.  Share it with your friends.  Let me know what you think. I get emails from people every week with Root Beer questions because they found my blog.  The more that view it the higher it shows up on the google search results.

And yes I do accept root beer gifts.

Iowa Friends are the best!

My friend Vince Payne from Iowa, sent me a package of joy today.  Here are the fun things I received from him. I am looking forward to drinking the Texas Root Beer.  THe rest are already proudly displayed in my Root Beer Room.

Thanks Vince.

Albuquerque and Farmington Finds

I recently made a trip to Farmington and Albuquerque New Mexico to visit friends and family.  Of course I could no go there and not check out the antique shops. The first picture below shows the entire cache of treasures I found. I am pretty excited about some of them.

All of the below glasses were found at a shop in the 12,000 block of Central in Albuquerque. 

I have a lot of A&W mugs, but this one has a Snoopy on the back. As near as I can tell the Snoopy is original to the making of the mug.

The below picture shows looking into the plastic mug.  It says HIRES int he middles and Always Refreshing To You .The little child's mug is Little Skipper Root Beer. I got it in a shop in Durango.

More mugs.  

These is a small shop about 14 miles east of Durango. That is where I found this frosted Hires mug.  Very cool.

A new ceramic mug to add to my others.

First Ted's Root Beer bottle I have ever seen. It is dated 1959. The Triple XXX1953 and the Dr Swett's is 1934.  Great find.

This little thermometer was in a shop in Durango. It is a bit rough but looks great on my wall.