Funny how things come together sometimes. On the heels of my post the other day about country stores displaying mostly Coco-Cola signs but very few Pepsi signs, I had a visitor in Buzzy’s who used to deliver Pepsi Cola to Buzzy. Frank Wilkinson was in town from Florida visiting his nephew Steve at Scotland Beach and they dropped into the Store. Frank told me some “Buzzy stories” about his dealings with Buzzy. He told of Buzzy’s mis-treatment of the Coco Cola deliverymen. “Buzzy always treated me ok because because I didn’t bother him,” Frank said. “Plus, I’d been doing it for several years, so Buzzy knew me.”
Frank told me that Pepsi back in the day outsold Coke on his south County route and that he was responsible for getting Buzzy the Pepsi sign that was on display in front of the Store. Below is a 1963 photo from the Washington Evening Star showing the Pepsi sign out by the old road. The new road straightened out the turn some and part of what’s shown here by the sign is now parking lot. Note too the old ice house that was situated out in front of the Store on a little spit of land centered in the parking lot. When the new road came thru, Buzzy did away with the ice house and expanded the parking lot. It wasn’t until later that Buzzy also dropped the C.H. Ridgell on the signs for “Buzzy’s Country Store.”
If you look close enough however, you will see the Coke logos on the sign above the porch. Knowing Buzzy, he was probably working both Coke and Pepsi for the signage which back then they paid for. That may explain too why so many of the old country store photo’s have all those cola signs on display – they were free.
