History Help

[Tabasco]

I found 2 soda bottles today and I cannot find any history of either one. The first is an Old Dutch bottle. It was a chocolate drink from the Old Dutch Bottling Co in Selma, Al. The second is a raised letter bottle that says BIGBEE Beverage. It has Columbus, Ms on the bottom of the bottle. I would like to know how old they are, how rare and the approximate worth, if any as well as any history associated with the bottles. Thank you for you time and help.

 

[wonkapete]

Hey Terry, yep, I can help ya here. Your profile doesn't say where you are, but both of those bottles are fairly plentiful in the South.

The Old Dutch Chocolate is from the 1950s-1960s. Depending on condition, worth $1-$5. The BigBee was a line of different flavored sodas, also from the 1950s-1960s. Worth about $4-$8.

 

[Tabasco]

Hey, thanks a bunch. I found them along an old river running through south Alabama so you are right on with your info. My mother in law is from Selma, think I will give her the Old Dutch and see if it conjures up any memories. Thanks again.

 

[wonkapete]

Sure thing! What part of South AL? I'm in Mobile.

 

[Tabasco]

I am northeast of Evergreen on Hwy 31 and one of our sons lives in west Mobile.

 

[wonkapete]

Great! I just picked up a hutch from Evergreen. As you probably know, those are hard to find. And right up the road is Georgiana and Greenville. That's where my family is from and I have a sizable collection of bottles from those two towns.

 

[Tabasco]

I just read a nice article in the Greenville Advocate about you and your collection. Small World! My wife teaches at Georgiana School. It sounds like the history of the Georgiana Bottling Company could be a reseach project for her students.

 

[wonkapete]

Oh great! Yep, that article has already yielded a lot of calls for me. About a dozen phone calls so far! I'm actually driving up there this weekend to check out a couple leads on bottles! Also to meet some folks that has information!

That'd be great if the students could incorporate this into their studies. My intent was to at least get some type of history written and then donate it to the Georgiana library since the city has NO recorded history of that bottling operation. I met with a few gentlemen back in February that worked there at the Dr Pepper plant in the 1940s. They gave some accounts of working there. It was such a small time bottling operation. The building is actually still standing (barely) and the current owner was kind enough to give me tour of it. There are a lot of people in Georgiana that don't know a bottling plant was ever there since it closed about 60 yrs ago!