Root Beer Riches from the West

I recently went on a several day trip through the states of Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Montana. Our main purpose was to visit family and friends.  But of course we had to stop of antique stores along the way.

We also went to the Root Beer Store in Lynnwood, Washington. Very fun place. I found many root beer items and brands I did not have.

Here are a few of my finds.

From the Root Beer store I was able to add 10 new brands of root beer I have not tasted. This was a welcome addition to my fridge in the garage.

I also found a few cans that are great. Turns out the Nehi was a duplicate but the other two were good, bringing my total cans to about 145

I found a few bottles at various places along the way.

A couple of the bottles were very large.

Then at our last stop I found the bottles that got me excited.  First was the brown Barq's bottle which I was sure I did not have. When I got home I discovered that I did indeed have it.  I really need to start checking the blog before I buy to ensure I do not wasted money on duplicates.  It is a very old Barq's bottle so perhaps it will sell in my fleamarket booth.

Next to the Barq's bottle is a Rosebud Soda bottle with an old Hires paper label.  I was so excited to see this that my desire to have an old Hires bottle over ran by ability to think clearly.  Once I got it home and started researching I discovered that the 12 Fl oz label in on a 7-1/2 fl oz bottle.  Although the label appears real, and the bottle is still a very nice Rosebud soda bottle, I  believe some simply stick a Hires label on a bottle to make it sell easier. Bummer for me, but then I gain knowledge through trial and error.

I found two new Dog n Suds mugs that are large and a nice addition to my collection.

I thought $3.00 for this MUG glass was reasonable. I have not seen another one of these before.

My most fun was at the Root Beer Store. In addition to the root beer mentioned above, I found several root beer items to add to my misc. collection. I am looking forward to our first Bar B Q so I can try out the root beer mustard and BBQ sauce.

Here is the piece I really enjoyed finding. It is a thin plastic Hires calendar from 1970.  This happens to be the year Cindy and I were married. I told her I was buying it for romantic reasons. She did not believe me for a second.

I hope you enjoyed this blog. It was sure a fun trip. I am now thinking about where else I can go.

April Collection Update

I was walking through Hobby Lobby the other day and saw this sign.  It is not a new one and only cost $15.00. Although it does not say Root Beer on it, I have several Dog n Suds mugs and through it would look good on my wall.  I was right.

Last week while walking through the Front Range Mercantile Fleamarket in Longmont, I saw this metal framed glass cabinet.  I fell in love all over again.  Even my wife, who told me I cannot buy any more furniture let me buy it once she saw it.   I had the perfect  spot for it already in the Root Beer room.

Here are some of the Root Beer candies I have been able to find. If you keep your eye open you can find root beer in lots of places.

These tins of root beer syrup are not a recent purchase, but I wanted to add them in to the blog so when I travel I will be able to bring them up on my iPad, along with the rest of my blog. I try to avoid buying duplicate items.

You can see to the left in this photo that I outgrew the two cabinets. I had to add a few shelves to hold the growing collection. Now I need to start working on Cindy until she agrees that a third cabinet would be a good idea.

Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois -March2014

Had a wonderful trip through Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. Here are some of the treasures I was able to find and bring home. As my Son-in-law so nicely explained to my wife, I am preserving American History.

  Some of the mugs I found.  The Hires one is nice because they are getting very hard to find. The bottom picture shows a Frostie Root Beer Mug. It is sort of in the shape of the Frostie Elf.

The Root Beer Revelry Store

This store is located in Galena, Illinois. It's primary focus is on selling root beer.  They have a very nice collection of old cans, bottles and other root beer items.  They also sell many brands of Root Beer. I picked up a case of root beer in preparation of our annual Root Beer and Pizza night in April.

This Frostie bottle topper is awesome. I have not yet been able to determine an exact date for it. I am guessing it is from the 1950's. It is my new favorite item.

One guess where I found the Huskies Root Beer bottle. In the Nebraska antique malls and fleamarkets, every booth had at least one Husky item.  Some we like a Husky shrine.

Bottle Caps

Here is my collection of Root Beer bottle caps. Some do not say Root Beer on the cap, but since I took them off a Root Beer bottle I know that is what they are.  Most of them either say Root Beer or have a brand name that is associated with Root Beer.

This is a cheap collection and fun to look for when traveling around.

New Best Friend

I want to give a shout out to Dave Becker. He is one of my new best friends.  I have a booth in the Front Range Mercantile Fleamarket in Longmont  FRM One of the things I sell in that booth are marbles.  Well Dave collects marbles.  In fact he more than collects them, he also makes them.  Check out his web site. Big Chief Marbles

Well Dave used to collect soda stuff. Dave contacted me through the fleamarket and once we knew about each others collections, we decided to do some trading. I had  marbles he wanted and he had some items I wanted.

Check out the treasures I got.

This is the group of Items I got

These are two rare glasses.  The Dad's glass is worth about $30 and the Hires glass about $20.

The small Hires Extract box includes the bottle plus the instructions.  It fits perfectly in the old mailer I found earlier.  This is from 1929.

The coolest item is the right hand Syrup Tester bottle.  I do not know for a fact it is a Root Beer tester.  I found several sort of like it on the internet, but they are all clear and were called Coke-a-cola testers.  If you are aware of other Root Beer Testers, please let me know.

The Ramblin mug is cool because I have never seen one before in all my travels. I had seen the RICHardson glass before but could not buy it, Getting this one was a treat.

Now that Dave and I know what each other collects, we will have an extra pair of eyes looking for treasures.

Root Beer Labels

I recently found several root beer bottle labels.  They are not very expensive and look nice mounted in a frame on the wall.  Here is what I have found so far.

Some of these brands I have never heard of and do not know if they can even be found anywhere.  I will need to do a little research.

Grandpa's Root Beer

Several months ago I found a bottle in a Loveland Fleamarket with the label,

Grandpa's Own Special Formula Root Beer

It has a paper label with a cork in the top and I assumed it was someone's home brew.  Then last Saturday we decided to drive up to Ault Colorado and check out the antique stores there.  There are 4 of them in this small town.  I was both surprised and very pleased to find a crock jug with the same brand on it.

I did a bit of research and found that there really is a company in St. Joseph, MO that bottles and sells Root Beer and Cream Soda. I have now added them to my list of places I want to go and visit.  I love this little crock. It probably only holds about 24 ozs.

I paid about $4.00 for the bottle and $15.00 for the crock.