August 4, 2006

Coca-Cola collecting couple

Western Reserve Back Roads - - From work to play, Coke is a big part of this New Lyme couple's lives

By CARL E. FEATHER

Lifestyle Editor

Thirty years ago, when Clarence Ashley was a rookie employee for the Fargo Coca-Cola Bottling Company in Ashtabula, he and a co-worker had a monthly chore that neither enjoyed.

"We'd take a stake-body truck full of unwanted stuff to the dump and get rid of it," says Ashley. "We had to pay $8 to dump it and we had to dump it ourselves."

The stuff Ashley dumped back in the 1970s -600- metal Coca-Cola signs, nonfunctional Coke machines and outdated promotional materials -600- is what Ashley, his wife Ruth and their friends in the Western Reserve Chapter of The Coca-Cola Club spend their weekends and evenings tracking down, buying and selling.

Clarence even has a sad story about a co-worker who figured out a way to make a flying-saucer-type sled from the old metal button Coke signs.

"That thing flew," says Ashley. "That's what happened to my very first Coke sign, I turned it into a sled."

Indeed, the 36-inch button sign displayed in his living room was on it's way to being converted to a barbecue grill when he talked his neighbor into selling it for $10.

As an avid Coca-Cola collector, Clarence Ashley can't do anything about the stuff he sent to the Columbus Avenue Dump or converted to sleds, but he can promote this fellowship of collectors and the preservation of what escaped the trash. The group, formed in October 1986, has more than three dozen members who meet every other month throughout the area served by the chapter, Cleveland to northwest Pennsylvania and south to the Akron/Canton area.

The Ashleys collected for a few months and made many of the mistakes novice collectors make before they found out about the local chapter and joined. Clarence is president, a fitting task for a man who still makes his living delivering Coca-Cola. His wife is editor of the chapter newsletter.

They devote their leisure time to buying and selling Coca-Cola items, attending conventions and swap meets, and learning about the extensive world of Coca-Cola memorabilia. Every room of their Route 6, New Lyme Township, home is a showcase for their collection.

Although Clarence made Coke while working at the bottling plant during the 1970s and delivered it for years, he never took an interest in collecting it's memorabilia until the soft-drink giant introduced a series of commemorative pro-football team cans in the early 1990s. Ruth became interested, as well, but went in a different direction, Coca-Cola calendars. Displayed in their living room, her collection includes the 1948 calendar for the year of Clarence's birth, the 1958 calendar from her birth year, and the calendars from the years each of her three children were born.

"I started with calendars because they date themselves," Ruth says.

Like many novices, the Ashleys got burned on one of their first purchases -600- their $35 purchase was worth only $5.

"We got ripped," Clarence says. "So we spent $50 and bought a book."

That book is "Petretti's Coca-Cola Collectibles Price Guide," a thick volume that helps them identify and date unfamiliar items they run across.

Their collecting interests have spread beyond bottles and calendars. "Whatever fits our fancy," says Ruth, summing up their collecting directions.

One downstairs room is dedicated to dispensers and lighted signs. Their dispensing machine collection includes one of the most sought after, the Vendo 44. Narrow and petite, the classic dispenser was popular in fishing camps in Maine and Canada. Clarence had to travel to northern Ontario to obtain his example.

Ruth has a special interest in Coca-Cola items from the World War II era. An entire bedroom is devoted to these items, which range from pop racks and signs to war-specific paper items. For example, Coca-Cola issued both a book and set of cards that helped civilians identify war planes. She recently found on eBay the original Sunday comics advertising that offered the book to consumers for 10 cents.

One would expect Clarence to have many unusual Coca-Cola items as a result of his employment, but, aside from the annual employee gifts he receives for his long service, Coke memorabilia is off limits to employees.

"If you get caught taking it out of the warehouse, even if the boss gives you permission, both of your jobs are on the line," says Clarence.

He and Ruth go through the normal channels of acquiring their memorabilia: auctions, swap meets, conventions, eBay and networking. His collection includes an over-sized wooden carrier built for Fargo Bottling to hold the 20-inch-tall promotional glass bottles. In that carrier is one of the last bottles of Coke to be bottled in Ashtabula. The soft drink is still inside; it even fizzes when shaken.

Clarence obtained the carrier at an auction. He also has the corporate stamp for Fargo Bottling. Still, he's certain there's a lot of memorabilia that vanished.

"They had what they called the goodie rooms at Ashtabula," Clarence says. "They kept them under lock and key. Nobody ever tried to break in and no one seemed to know what was in there."

The plant was on Valleyview Boulevard on the Ashtabula Gulf. Clarence says workers dumped a couple of barrels of chipped and cracked Coke bottles into The Gulf almost every day. Employees were supposed to break every bottle before discarding it.

Clarence's diverse bottle collection spans the 120 years of Coca-Cola history. It includes all but one of the 75th commemorative bottles issued by every bottling company. The one elusive bottle recently sold on the Internet site, BottleWorld.com, for $811.

Explaining the kind of passion that drives the prices demanded by vintage Coca-Cola memorabilia isn't easy, but it has a lot to do with the memories.

"For us, it's because he's worked for the company," says Ruth. "But everybody has their own reason. A lot of it reminds people of their childhood, too. I think that has a lot to do with it, the red and white colors."