Page 36 - Winter 2021

s| ANTIQUITIES Soda bottles
reveal rich history
Story and photos by Julia Fechter
When retired Coca-Cola employee Mark Parsons discovered some historic soda bottles from Watkinsville, he knew he had a mystery on his hands.
Parsons was cleaning out the crawl space of a Bishop house where he had lived briefly when he unearthed several soda bottles bearing the names Mo’ For Less, Mr. Cola and Sunbeam. He marveled at the word “Watkinsville” printed in tiny block capital letters on the bottom of the bottles.
“Before a certain date, they (bottlers) didn’t imprint them like this,” he said. “The older ones were embossed.”
Parsons collected the bottles and researched the name
“Grapette” that was printed on the Sunbeam and Mr. Cola ones. Grapette was a company headquartered in Camden, Arkansas, not far from Walmart’s headquarters. The business was founded
in 1939 by Benjamin Fooks.
Fooks wanted to satisfy public demand by making a soda that
replicated the taste of fresh grapes. By 1950, over 300 facilities in 42 U.S. states were bottling Grapette products, including a facility in Watkinsville.
Business records indicate that Athens Seven-Up Bottling Company, Inc. acquired a license to operate in Watkinsville on April 20, 1961.
sJulia Fechter is a news reporter for The Oconee Enterprise newspaper in Watkinsville, Ga. PAGE 34 | OCONEE THE MAGAZINE | WINTER 2021
A soda bottling company operated in Watkinsville during the 1960s.