In July 1977, I walked into the local Pic-a-Pop bottler in Lethbridge, AB and applied for a job. I was there for the next 12 and a half years.

It started working on the line, bottling the product, and making deliveries to the stores in small towns around Lethbridge with an old Ford half ton truck. We also had a '52 International Harvester 3 ton truck to supply Medicine Hat.

The times were good, and I had a lot of fun working there. I remember the water fights in the summer, and that not with the sissy squirt guns kids use today, high-pressure water hose works better, always. [img]smile.gif[/img]
(And we also had the mixing tanks for the syrup. Fill one of those up and dump someone in it... did that once. )

By the time I left I was production manager, delivery driver, and the whole maintenance department. I could take a CEM 3-20 apart and put it back together, I have done it.

In the in between time, it was a good job that will never come back, everything has become big and impersonal.

Pic-a-Pop was a Winnipeg company. There were franchise bottling operations in Langley, BC, Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge, AB, Moose Jaw, SK and also in different US states.
The bottles for the US states had the local company name printed on them, this was not necessary for Canada, and here they all had Winnipeg on them.

There were different types though.

In BC they used a stubby 10-ounce bottle and a 26-ounce for the family size. The label was red/orange/white. There were also some orange/white labels. (All labels referred to were printed on the bottle)

In the other provinces we used a tall 10 ounce (with a swirl) bottles and a 30 ozs bottle, with a white label on them.

Metric bottles were first used in Winnipeg and the US states (yeah, metric in the US) they were of a stubby kind, 750 ml and 300 ml. They rode pretty good in the half cases, a lot better than the old bottles.

In Lethbridge we got a lot of bottles from the US states plants, as they were the first ones to close down. Basically they enabled us to go metric, as it is very expensive to buy new bottles.

The first plant in Canada to go under was Edmonton. After that Langley, Moose Jaw and Calgary closed, in no particular order.

I remember we (in Lethbridge) bottled for a good number of Calgary stores for a few years. Lethbridge closed in the early 90's, although I had already left.

From Lethbridge I went to the Okanagen, where I worked at the Pop Shoppe in Kelowna in its final days, and a worked for a couple of years for Penticton Mr.Pop.

[ 12-04-2005, 11:20 AM: Message edited by: Wildrose-Wally ]

Welcome [img]smile.gif[/img]
I enjoyed reading your story.
I'm sure everyone else will as well.
Zabe

Wow! Someone who remembers Pic-a-Pop. There was a franchise for that here in San Antonio back in the 70's.

I don't know who the board admins are, but I would sure like you to put up these avatars, since there are no Pic-a-Pop avatars in your list. Please?

Thank you very much.

Originally Posted by Wildrose-Wally

In July 1977, I walked into the local Pic-a-Pop bottler in Lethbridge, AB and applied for a job. I was there for the next 12 and a half years.

It started working on the line, bottling the product, and making deliveries to the stores in small towns around Lethbridge with an old Ford half ton truck. We also had a '52 International Harvester 3 ton truck to supply Medicine Hat.

The times were good, and I had a lot of fun working there. I remember the water fights in the summer, and that not with the sissy squirt guns kids use today, high-pressure water hose works better, always. [img]smile.gif[/img]
(And we also had the mixing tanks for the syrup. Fill one of those up and dump someone in it... did that once. )

By the time I left I was production manager, delivery driver, and the whole maintenance department. I could take a CEM 3-20 apart and put it back together, I have done it.

In the in between time, it was a good job that will never come back, everything has become big and impersonal.

Pic-a-Pop was a Winnipeg company. There were franchise bottling operations in Langley, BC, Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge, AB, Moose Jaw, SK and also in different US states.
The bottles for the US states had the local company name printed on them, this was not necessary for Canada, and here they all had Winnipeg on them.

There were different types though.

In BC they used a stubby 10-ounce bottle and a 26-ounce for the family size. The label was red/orange/white. There were also some orange/white labels. (All labels referred to were printed on the bottle)

In the other provinces we used a tall 10 ounce (with a swirl) bottles and a 30 ozs bottle, with a white label on them.

Metric bottles were first used in Winnipeg and the US states (yeah, metric in the US) they were of a stubby kind, 750 ml and 300 ml. They rode pretty good in the half cases, a lot better than the old bottles.

In Lethbridge we got a lot of bottles from the US states plants, as they were the first ones to close down. Basically they enabled us to go metric, as it is very expensive to buy new bottles.

The first plant in Canada to go under was Edmonton. After that Langley, Moose Jaw and Calgary closed, in no particular order.

I remember we (in Lethbridge) bottled for a good number of Calgary stores for a few years. Lethbridge closed in the early 90's, although I had already left.

From Lethbridge I went to the Okanagen, where I worked at the Pop Shoppe in Kelowna in its final days, and a worked for a couple of years for Penticton Mr.Pop.

[ 12-04-2005, 11:20 AM: Message edited by: Wildrose-Wally ]

Cool story, I miss Pic-a-pop. I still have a few cases of those BC stubby bottles. Do you remember there were 284ml and 300ml bottles with different painted labels? I also have one huge plastic Pic-a-pop sign from back in the day! Sign must be 8' long! Pic-a-pop was my favorite...Pop shoppe was OK I guess. I don't know if you saw this, but Pic-a-pop made a come back last year! I had Grape, Cream Soda, Lime and a flavor I don't remember...Blue Raspberry! Still have that one here if you want it!...Oh yeah, I also bought a shirt for the relaunch! Almost forgot, one of the US bottles I collected was from Hawaii? Always thought Pic-a-pop was sold in Canada only!