Friday, April 25, 1997
A lucky bottle begets a name
BLACKWELL - I went inside the Lucky Bottle Feed Store because
I couldn't figure out why a place would have a name like that.
The store front looked like a turn-of-the-century store, or
even older, like it should have buckboard wagons pulled up in
front. Up high was the odd sign that gave the place its name.
The sign needed paint. Inside were all sorts of hardware items,
farm tools, and even an old tricycle that was missing a wheel.
These items were hanging from the ceiling. And there was the heavy
odor of livestock feed.
Soft drinks were in a refrigerated glass case. I got a Coke.
Twenty ounces for 59 cents.
"We've got the cheapest Cokes in town," said a man
whom I thought was probably the owner. "Pay the lady over
there around the corner."
I found her and paid.
"Is this place famous?" I asked, having no idea why
I would ask that.
The lady rolled her eyes.
"I guess you'd have to ask John about that," she
said.
So the fellow whom I had met earlier came back.
His full name is John Muncy and he is the owner. And truth
is, he said, the place is sort of famous.
"We made the 7 o'clock news in Fort Worth back in 1986,"
he said, giving weight to his claim of fame. The fame, he added,
was related to the name of the store.
"Let me show you," he said, leading me to the front
door.
"This place was built in 1906. I bought it in 1986. See
this door? This is the original door, but when we were fixing
this place up, we decided to move the door. We picked up the door
frame and that's when the Coke bottle fell out of the frame, right
there on that floor right where you are standing," Muncy
said.
The bottle, was green, and carried the image of a Longhorn
steer up toward the neck. But that was not important. What was
important, Muncy said, was the date inscribed on the bottle -
1896 - by the Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Sweetwater, Texas.
Muncy speculated that a carpenter, working on the door in 1906,
drank the liquid and placed the bottle in the door frame.
Muncy thought he might have something valuable and he and the
bottle went on the Fort Worth television news. That, in turn,
prompted a series of offers from collectors.
One collector offered Muncy a 1939 Model A Ford in mint condition
for the bottle. Muncy found out that the Ford was valued from
$10,000-12,000, but he said no to the offer.
He got three other offers that were higher in value than the
Ford.
"Let's just say it was a big bunch of money. But I've
always have said no, so the bottle is just sitting there in my
safe deposit box."
And that, Muncy said, is how the store came to be called the
Lucky Bottle Feed Store.
Muncy sat down on a bench outside in the shade facing Main
Street. He said he came here in 1986 to raise his daughter, Codi,
now 13.
"She's a basketball star," Muncy said proudly.
Codi's mother died not long after Codi was born.
But Muncy said things had been great since coming to Blackwell.
"Buying this place. Finding the bottle. And then business
has been nothing but good. I'd say it's been like magic,"
he said. "And I've got the cheapest Cokes and the most expensive
Coke bottle, too."
Then a lady who was listening to the conversation, but whom
I did not meet spoke up.
"Yeah, and we still like him, too," she said.
"Yeah, and they like me anyway," Muncy agreed.
This column covers the cities and communities of this part
of West Texas. To contact Ken Ellsworth, call (800) 588-6397 or
(915) 673-4271, Ext. 381, or write to P.O. Box 30, Abilene, TX
79604.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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