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I came across your website just by browsing and saw that you had some collections of Bright Spot Soda bottles from Milwaukee, WI. I just thought that you might be interested to know that I worked at Bright Spot as a high school student in the summers of 1960 and 1961. We were just a small company of about 5 people and turned out about 300 cases of soda per day on a good day.

My job was to work there in the summer so that the regular employees could go on vacation. The company was a corporation and the shareholders, about a dozen or so, were never interested in improving and growing the business. As a result, the company finally went out of business because they could no longer compete with the larger companies. As a teenager, it always seemed to me that they business had real potential. I think that it was one of the great missed opportunities that come along once in a while. We received numerous requests from local beverage stores to carry our product. As I remember we only had one dealer. Most people came to the factory to pick up their soda. Most of the requests for dealerships were turned down because it was felt that if there were too many dealers in a area (like the entire city of Milwaukee!) they would be competing with each other and our total sales would drop. I guess nobody ever thought that Pepsi and Coke were sold all over the place and it didn't seem to hurt their business any.

At the time we only produced returnable bottles, 6 ounce and 12 ounce. We also produced a 6 1/2 ounce bottle that we supplied to the Milwaukee County Institutions (hospitals and nursing homes, etc.) It seems that the institutions insisted on a 6 1/2 ounce bottle and not a 6 ounce bottle. As I remember we had some very old bottles that we used to supply their needs.

We usually bought our syrup from other companies. One of the companies that we bought orange flavor from marketed their product under the name "Kist". I think that this company was also from Wisconsin. However, we did produce our own syrup for the cherry flavor. As I remember, it had a small amount of alcohol as part of the formula. The state of Wisconsin kept a very close check on the amount used and state inspectors did come in from time to time to be sure that we weren't producing something other than soda. The alcohol must have been dissipated in the process of producing the soda because I know that it had no alcoholic content, or I wouldn't have been able to drink it as an underage employee.

The company was located in a rather poor part of Milwaukee. Back in the early 60's it was not dangerous, only poor. In addition to soda we sold a natural spring water produced by Chippewa Water of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. I believe that they are still in business. Most of our product was delivered to taverns and picnics. We also did deliver the spring water to some of the wealthy residents of Milwaukee. I remember once going to the Uehlien home to deliver spring water. The Uehliens (I'm not sure of the spelling) were the majority stockholders of the Schlitz Brewing Company. It was a huge mansion located on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Our equipment included a 12 spout filler and a washer that used some very harsh chemicals to sterilize the bottles. I remember that the washer broke down the first year I was working there and they just hated to spend the money to buy a new and up-to-date model. Instead, somehow they located a washer that was never used but in a warehouse. It was manufactured in 1947. It was identical to the one that we had at the time but since it was never used they bought that one.

The manager was a man named Henry Lemmerman. He was active in the Wisconsin Lutheran Synod, a very conservative Lutheran church body. I was also a member of that church and I'm sure that helped me to get a summer job there.

I don't know the full history of the company. However, I do remember delivering to one of the stockholders. After we left his home the driver told me that he was worth a great deal of money (at least $100,000) at least for those days.