I’ve received many gifts over the years, but one of the best is one from my son this past Christmas. Due to his work schedule and other circumstances, the actual gift exchange didn’t occur until mid-January. He brought in a box with carefully wrapped contents. As I began to unwrap the first, it became apparent that he had put a lot of thought and energy into the gift.
A bit of a back story before I reveal the contents. I started collecting soda bottles when I was quite young. I had several shelves above my bed with the varied bottles in my collection. We often joked if there ever came an earthquake, I would be in great peril because of the glass bottles perched to the side of my bed.
Through the years, I had added many bottles to my collection, although they far exceeded being displayed on two small shelves. When I opened the first neatly wrapped bottle from my son, he began to tell the story of how he had obtained them.
While working one day as a police officer in a nearby town, an investigation led to a small creek. He explained how there was a bend in the creek that led to heavier objects being deposited there. That’s where he had found each of the bottles in the box that day. I loved his story as much as I liked the actual bottles.
The first bottle was a SunDrop bottle. It’s a local drink found mainly in the south. The painted label was worn a bit, but was still identifiable. The second bottle was a Nehi soda and once again, even though the label was worn, it was quite easy to tell what its contents had been.
The third bottle was actually a Mason jar. These were often used for home canning, although my son offered that it might have been used to hold homemade moonshine. Another bottle was lacking any sort of label, but with an investigation on social media, I found out it was a Fanta soda. Its contents were obvious to one collector because of the bottle’s distinctive shape.
The final bottle I unwrapped was by far the most exciting. It was a well-preserved Coca-Cola bottle with the distinctive logo embossed on the unpainted glass container. Making it even more special was the fact it was from Christmas of 1923, a special bottle they had produced at that time.
What made this gift be categorized as “the best” was the fact that my son had taken time out of his day to procure it. He had told the officer he was working with when he found the bottles exactly what he would be doing with them. It was the second time he had done this, the other bottles coming from assorted places. What made this one special was the story that he shared that went along with them.
I now have the bottles proudly displayed on a wooden display case and they mean the world to me.
David Lee
David Lee 