Made from flavors specially blended in the traditional hillbilly style

It was another weekend of smashing here at the Fawcett/Honeycups household. The projects on the docket included tearing down a wall that separated the rooms in the front of the house:
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We also removed the cinderblocks that closed off a window on the front of the building, and tore out another wall on the second floor, in the area that is currently known as our bedroom. I will spare you the photos, as they are not really that interesting (I can’t imagine) to someone who does not curse the existence of said walls every day, and that exclusive club has only two members: Farrell and Trixie.

All of the demolition resulted, more than anything else, in a massive amount of dust and debris. But, being the planners that we are, a dumpster was secured at the beginning of the weekend, and a couple guys we hired off of craigslist came over to carry loads of junk into that dumpster on both Friday and Saturday. This is what the dumpster looked like when it was completely full at the end of the weekend:

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The guys from craigslist were a story unto themselves. I kicked myself a hundred times for not getting a few photos of them. I won’t say anything more than that they loved and I mean LOVED Kelly Clarkson, and sang along loudly while they swept brick dust and carried cinderblocks outside to the dumpster waiting on the curb. Dr. Cedric, what do you think that means about these guys?

Our discovery of a vintage Mountain Dew bottle was one of the highlights of this weekend’s demolition.

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We learned in our research of this bottle that Mountain Dew was introduced in the 1940s by two brothers in Tennessee. The brothers who concocted the beverage were from the Hartman family, interestingly also Trixie’s mother’s maiden name. The initial sketches seen on the first bottles of Mountain Dew depict a hillbilly (whose name, it turns out, was Willie–that’s Farrell and Trixie’s son’s name to those not in the know) shooting at another hillbilly who is fleeing from an outhouse while a pig looks on. The caption reads: “made from flavors specially blended in the traditional hillbilly style.” Therefore, this bottle design will be designated by me as the most awesome kickass bottle design of all time. If you don’t agree with me, please send me the caption of the back of any bottle that is more tittilating than “it’ll tickle yore innards!”

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5 responses to “Made from flavors specially blended in the traditional hillbilly style”

  1. Lane says:

    Wow, that bottle is quite a treasure.

  2. Scott Godfrey says:

    I don’t mean to get your hopes up, but all the work you’re doing on your house should increase its value to atleast $22,000.00.

  3. nikki. says:

    i always look forward to your house updates.

  4. G-Lock says:

    Check eBay. Maybe that bottle could pay for all these renovations.

  5. Stephanie Wells says:

    When I finally got my PhD, my dad combed eBay to find an antique bottle and can of “Dr. Wells” soda for my desk–apparently he sifted through dozens of various designs before finding one of each with a classic red-and-white diagonal stripe pattern. No innard-ticklin’ slogan on either vessel, but it’s probably the most touching gift I’ve ever received. (The gift tag, of course, read “What’s up, Doc?”–ha ha. You gotta love dad humor.)