Dr. Pepper and the Taylor Greer family in Mineola
After Mr. Greer's death in 1938, Harrison Rhodes was named manager of the plant and served in that capacity for several until he decided to move to west Texas to go into the oil business.
When Rhodes left, Mrs. Greer hired her nephew, Bruce Bonar, as the new manager. Harry M. Jones, a Mineola attorney, stated in an affidavit that he had worked as a small child for Mr. Greer. Greer paid him in whatever flavor of soda pop Jones wanted that was on hand.
In 1951 Pat Bogan, a Mineola resident, became an employee of the bottling company until he reported for duty with the U.S. Navy later that year. Bogan had two responsibilities. One was to drive a truck for local deliveries and the other was to inspect the filled bottles at the end of the conveyor.
An inspection station at that point had four bottle-shaped holes slightly smaller than a bottle on which he could drag four bottles at one time. Very bright lights were installed under the holes that allowed him to inspect the bottles to assure that there were no impurities. Bogan said that very few had to be rejected.
After the bottles were inspected, an employee would move the filled cases and stack them at the rear of the building until they were needed. Bobby Oglesby operated and maintained the machinery at the bottling company. Greet Bottling Company had two truck for deliveries to local businesses and Bogan did local deliveries in a 1950 Ford pickup.
The dr. Pepper Bottling Company produced enough Dr. Pepper, Sunkist Orange, and Nu Grape drinks each day to cover deliveries. Deliveries were made twice daily and at peak periods, a third delivery was made.
During the 1951 period, the two area routes were driven by Dan Kizer, who had the eastern route to East Mountain, and Pete Dean, who drove east to Gladewater. In 1951, Bogan was paid $35 a week with no overtime. In the summer months, due to an increased demand for soft drinks, employees worked nine to 10 hours each day to quench the thirst of local residents.
Mrs. Ebbie Bomar Greer left most of the responsibilities of running the bottling business to her nephew Bruce Bomar. However, she was a close observer of every detail. One of the truck drivers in the 1950s, Dan Kizer, said that he was paid five cents a case for delivering his drinks to customers on his route. Mrs. Greer would wait for him to get out of his truck when he returned to the plant, and if she caught him with a empty bottle, she would come down on him something fierce, stating "that cost me five cents."
During World War II, the soft drink industry, like most other industries, faced rationing of sugar, gasoline, tires and other products. After the war, demand for soft drinks soared. On October 23rd, 1946, wartime controls were lifted. However, sugar rationing continued until July 28th, 1947.
(Part Three of this story will appear in the next edition of The Gazette.)
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
