We had a graduation party today for my oldest son - another Manor Ridge kid who made it through Penn Manor School District like we all did (well, almost all of us did).
The party gave us our first chance to try out the old cooler and it worked great - like it never stopped since 1976. Of course we didn't actually turn it on - the power cord is far too frayed and worn to risk doing that (someday I hope to fix that and crank it up and see if it still blasts cold air). But for now, placing the beer and soda into it and packing it with ice worked just fine.
As you can see in the bottom photo, there is a drain plug opening at the bottom of the right side of the cooler. This allows the melted ice water to flow out. And cold! Yes it kept the bottles plenty cold - the inside metal walls are so well insulated they felt like blocks of ice once the ice got them cooled down.
We had several guests who were old time Manor Ridgers and they well remember Wagners and the cooler. For all of them it was the first time they had a chance to glimpse this piece of Manor Ridge history in, well, at least 34 years. They most enjoyed putting a cold bottle of beer into the old bottle cap opener, tilting and lifting to remove the cap, and hearing that bottle cap "clink-clinking" down into the cap collector. Of course my kids don't know what a bottle opener on a soda machine even is or why one was needed to remove bottle caps. Weren't bottle caps always screw off?
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