Who remembers the Corona Lorry?

[no-no]

One of my earliest memories is of the corona lorry coming down the street, all it sold was corona fizzy drinks. The lorry was huge, a massive flatbed truck loaded up with crates of fizzy drinks. We used to go even more mental than when the ice cream van pulled up.

Can't believe that was a viable business now.

 

[marty21]

Yep, we had one come to the estate I lived on - created great excitement

 

[Badgers]

Yes, they were better times.

 

[mr steev]

Not Corona, but we had the Apline pop man which was the same thing

 

[Epona]

When/where was this?

I am fairly sure we never had anything like that happen in the part of rural Surrey where I grew up. Although that's hardly surprising, sheep don't drink that much fizzy pop, and there weren't vast numbers of people around!

 

[Belushi]

My Uncle Pete was an Alpine pop man

Corona was better pop though, fizzy as hell, it was like striking gold when you found one of the bottles and were able to get 10p back at the shop

 

[Badgers]

http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/rl/scrap60/wijnand/galaxymemorabilia3.html

 

[Badgers]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/posts/story_of_corona_pop

 

[Kidda]

I have many fond memories of the pop man coming round to my nans and us kids being allowed Dandelion and Burdock

The pop man went hi tech later on in the early 90's and started renting VHS from the back of his van. He had constructed a Video frame that hooked on to the back doors and we'd all run out and choose a film to watch.

 

[ViolentPanda]

There was a big Schweppes depot-cum-bottling plant in Wandsworth (East Hill) until the 1980s, so a lot of places within about a 5 mile radius had Corona lorries in the '70s. Place got levelled and turned into "townhouses" in the early '90s, IIRC.

 

[Firky]

It was Water & Robson here, a local pop factory that had a spring under the factory. It went tits up about 10 years ago, they pulled the factory down, capped the spring and built flats on top. Now the flats are unsurprisingly subsiding and empty.

I think they're talking about pulling the flats down and making a community garden instead.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I think I have faint memories of seeing them, but don't remember them coming down the road I lived in. I guess it wouldn't have been all that worthwhile, there weren't many kids in the street - many of the occupants in the 70s were the retirement age-ish couples who had bought the houses in 1936 ish or just after the war)

I think the milkman did bottles of lemonade and the like. Both Unigate and Co-op did milk rounds daily, and we had at least one bread delivery van round. And coal lorries.

 

[Epona]

cum-bottling

Don't recall that flavour of Schweppes

(I tried to resist, really I did)

 

[ViolentPanda]

Don't recall that flavour of Schweppes

(I tried to resist, really I did)

 

[Hocus Eye.]

I remember the pop lorry coming around our council estate when I was a kid. I never have liked fizzy drinks. I also remember the milk delivery man selling what was claimed to be orange juice. When I suggested that we buy some my mother dismissed it as 'just coloured water'. I have no idea how true that was, but there wasn't spare money for inessentials in any case.

I also remember when I was student in Leeds, seeing a boy grab a bottle off a pop lorry and run away faster than I have seen anyone run until the recent Olympic Games.

 

[no-no]

When/where was this?

I am fairly sure we never had anything like that happen in the part of rural Surrey where I grew up. Although that's hardly surprising, sheep don't drink that much fizzy pop, and there weren't vast numbers of people around!

addington circa 1979, later on we had a greengrocers van that came round each week. I'd use that now if it still existed. I'm sure there's a market for it and certainly for a late night fags,skins,booze and pudding delivery service.

 

[editor]

Me. I used to like this stuff too.

 

[Shirl]

The Corona Chap as my mother called him came to our house weekly. I think that must have been in the late 50's or early 60's.

 

[Fez909]

It was the Lowcocks van in Middlesbrough when I was a young 'un. You've actually posted a pic of Lowcocks, OP!

Sadly it (the factory) closed down and was sold on years ago. I think that signaled the beginning of the end for Middlesbrough's jobs.

 

[Epona]

addington circa 1979, later on we had a greengrocers van that came round each week.

We had milk and coal deliveries, and the mobile library used to stop a couple of miles away (I used to cycle to the village when I wanted that), but no fizzy pop lorry I suspect that if there was one it went straight past us, like the ice cream van. Stuff like that doesn't stop for 6 houses that can't even be seen from the road in the middle of fecking nowhere!

 

[Geri]

I don't think we had one here, but when we used to go and visit my great-gran & grandad in Derbyshire there was always a couple of bottles of pop in their house. It was a huge treat to be able to have some. My great grandad also used to make toast in front of the fire. Must have taken bloody ages.

 

[marty21]

Yes, they were better times.

innocent times of plentiful pop

 

[Stanley Edwards]

Collect enough bottles to collect the deposit to almost get a bottle for free. Every friday to go with fish and chips when I was young and in Brum. Cherry Corona for me please. Or, red lemonade as it was known in Scully.

 

[gosub]

My Uncle Pete was an Alpine pop man

Corona was better pop though, fizzy as hell, it was like striking gold when you found one of the bottles and were able to get 10p back at the shop

backs of pubs were a rich seam

 

[moose]

My Uncle Pete was an Alpine pop man
Corona was better pop though, fizzy as hell, it was like striking gold when you found one of the bottles and were able to get 10p back at the shop

Blimey - that's inflation for you! It was 2 old pennies, rising to 5p on decimalisation when I were a nipper. I can clearly remember the wire basket you put the bottles in at the corner shop, with a battered metal Corona sign on the top and a kind of sticky puddle underneath where people hadn't washed the bottles out properly.

 

[Mungy]

alpine man in birkenhead. there used to be a pop factory by us, my dad was mates with the security guard. i always thought the security guard was Fulton Mackay

 

[Favelado]

There was a big Schweppes depot-cum-bottling plant in Wandsworth (East Hill) until the 1980s,

Eurgh. Disgusting. Why couldn't you cockneys drink pop like everyone else?

 

[mrsfran]

We had the Alpine man for a short while in Wokingham. Cream soda was green! That was tremendously exciting when I was 9.

 

[blossie33]

Yes, we used to have the Corona popman in Birmingham in the 50s/60s
Dandilion and Burdock, Ice Cream Soda etc.

I suppose there was a good market for them to deliver as there were far less car owners back in those days and, as they were then glass bottles, they would have been a heavy load to carry from the shop.

In Brum we used to have the Davenports Beer at Home delivery man too.
My Nan used to have a crate delivered every week!

 

[ringo]

I have a Corona wooden crate, it's very similar to this one:

I also have Whitbread beer crate, a wooden 'British Margerine' crate and just one of the crates I covet the most - the Schweppes crate beloved of 7" vinyl collectors: