I won't put you through the pain of getting that song buried in your head. But, it does provide me with an introduction to a crazy oddball of an item I got from everyone's favorite purveyor of vintage items, Mark Hoyle.
Yes, Mark sent me an RC Cola can from the 1970s. RC Cola, surprisingly to me, actually was first invented in the south. In fact, it was first developed in my wife's hometown of Columbus, Georgia, way back in 1905 by Claud A. Hatcher.
Claud developed the cola because the local Coca-Cola company would not give him a better deal on syrup for his use in his pharmacy. As a result, he said he would make his own cola. It took a while for that to happen, as Claud first released a ginger ale called Royal Crown Ginger Ale. The company was renamed as Chero-Cola in 1910 and then as Nehi Corporation in 1925.
But you didn't come here to read about RC Cola's history. Why, pray tell, would Mark be sending me an old steel RC Cola can from the 1970s here in 2014? Would his local trash company not take it?
No -- he had a very good reason to send it to me.
That reason, is Sal Bando. The can dates from 1977. While the photos are not licensed by MLB, the MLBPA did provide their okay to use player likenesses.
And now, let's take a trip down memory lane (for some of us) or into the depths of our imaginations (for others)......
Think about how great it was back in the 1970s. For breakfast, you have Frosted Flakes and inside, there is a baseball card!
For lunch, you have a sandwich on Wonder Bread (football cards!) and down it with a nice RC Cola with a player on the side...or a Pepsi Cola with a player on a disc in a glove stuck in the 6-pack of bottles.
Or, maybe, you stop off at a fastfood place and grab a burger -- and get a complete team set of discs.
Finally, after a long day at work (assuming you are old enough then), you can stop off at the package store, grab a 12-pack of Iron City Beer, and get a beer can featuring the Pittsburgh Pirates or Steelers (and oddly enough, I think I might still have one or two of those at my mom's house).
Back to 2014
And those paragraphs are why collecting sports items is so much fun. If only we could get that fun back today through a few cool oddballs, life would be a lot more interesting and fun in the grocery store.
Does anyone know why we DON'T have food issues any more? Is the cost too high?
At any rate, this RC Cola can was just an incredibly cool item to receive in the mail. As always, Mark, I cannot possibly come up with a way to thank you other than saying it: thanks AGAIN, Mark!
And now, let's take a trip down memory lane (for some of us) or into the depths of our imaginations (for others)......
Think about how great it was back in the 1970s. For breakfast, you have Frosted Flakes and inside, there is a baseball card!
For lunch, you have a sandwich on Wonder Bread (football cards!) and down it with a nice RC Cola with a player on the side...or a Pepsi Cola with a player on a disc in a glove stuck in the 6-pack of bottles.
Or, maybe, you stop off at a fastfood place and grab a burger -- and get a complete team set of discs.
Finally, after a long day at work (assuming you are old enough then), you can stop off at the package store, grab a 12-pack of Iron City Beer, and get a beer can featuring the Pittsburgh Pirates or Steelers (and oddly enough, I think I might still have one or two of those at my mom's house).
Back to 2014
And those paragraphs are why collecting sports items is so much fun. If only we could get that fun back today through a few cool oddballs, life would be a lot more interesting and fun in the grocery store.
Does anyone know why we DON'T have food issues any more? Is the cost too high?
At any rate, this RC Cola can was just an incredibly cool item to receive in the mail. As always, Mark, I cannot possibly come up with a way to thank you other than saying it: thanks AGAIN, Mark!
Cool oddball, and the scenario you described sounded pretty neat. I wasn't alive in the 70's but if that's how life really was then I'm amazed at how quickly things changed from the 60's to the 70's lol ;).
ReplyDeletePersonally I think the disappearance of food issues all come down to costs. Companies would have to purchase or rent (no doubt very high) licensing fees, In addition to that there are production costs and the opportunity cost involved. I think the last time I saw a MLB card/thing distributed with food was in 2010 when a few Kelloggs cereal boxes in Japan came with limited edition Upper Deck cards (in two boxes I got two Akinori Iwamuras -_-;).
Yeah probably comes down to cost. But it's funny you mention it I was just thinking today why doesn't Panini work with the industry to put out some new food issues. Hell they've already got all the images they need airbrushed and cropped. Their MLBPA license probably limits the number of sets they can produce though.
ReplyDeleteThat Bando looks to be in outstanding shape. Most of those cans have a lot of rust on them. Now you just have to track down a nice Yount for you collection.
I've sent a few of these cans out over the past year. Everyone was personally drank by me on my way home from school. I have a few football cans also. Tony. I found the Yount can. I will get it out next week.
ReplyDeleteMLB and its licensing prices everyone out of everything. Licensing used to be a good thing. Then MLB and their corporate ilk turned it into a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you have to believe it's all about the cost for the licensing -- whether through MBLPA or MLB Interactive (or whatever licenses the cards with logos these days). And I guess that MLB's corporate partners aren't knocking the doors down demanding the right to print baseball cards these days either.
DeleteWhich is a shame. How many kids got into baseball card collecting because of Twinkies, Frosted Flakes, or even just Bubble gum?