The Flood and October 28th, 1940
Last week, 22 inches of snow fell in a day and a half. The largest snow in my area for quite a while. My house was built in 1938 and I have found a few newspapers and magazines stuffed behind the walls or in the attic. A couple of days after the big snow, came the big rain. Relentless downpours for a day. Then the big melt. Forty gallons of water seeped through my walls and into the basement. While cleaning up the mess, Linda found a yellowed and fragile copy of the long-forgotten Washington Daily News. Hitler was staying in Italy. Willkie was on his way to winning the presidency. (right) The Republicans were calling the New Deal a failure and of course the Redskins had problems. On the bright side, you could buy a bottle of the cold tonic, 666 for 16 cents.
Cameron,
I read your post this morning with great interest. One, I have been involved with historic renovation thru the years and have always rummaged around looking for links to the past, found objects and “plain old treasure.” I’m always amazed and thrilled when I find something really neat.
Secondly, I know the family who started the 666 Tonic biz. Grew up with their kids. It was the Roberts family who started the Monticello Drug Company, here in Jacksonville. It was headquartered and manufactured in a large yellow 3 story building at the foot of the old Acosta Bridge. It had a huge 666 sign on the roof. The building was torn down in the early 90’s (?) to make way for the new bridge. When I got out of RISD graduate school in 1975, the Roberts/Ashby family offered me 1/3 of the second floor (3000 sq. ft. studio space for free) as the manufacturing had been recently moved to a modern FDA approved South Carolina facility. Up until the early 70’s little old ladies were still mixing and bottling 666 and Rubmytism by hand from stainless vats. I moved out in 1980 to become Gallery/Museum director at New Mexico State Univ. Still have some of the old SS vats, a load of memorabilia and great memories.
Cameron, I always enjoy your posts…they make my aerial work better…Thanks for sharing!!!
Best in the New Year, Bill
Bill (from email)
1 Jan 10 at 12:30 pm