During the 1970s, the average person doubled the amount of soda they drank; by the 1980s consumption had overtaken tap water. Coca-Cola bottlers in this era were essentially printing money, and the décor of the locally-owned bottling plants often showed it. A private elevator here, shag carpeting there, custom wood panels, windows fabricated like bottle caps, extra facilities for the owner, etc. I visited one of the relics on a project in the 2000s. Although the functioning part of the plant had been neatly renovated and modernized, a portion was cordoned off…like a walk-in time capsule collecting dust. I noticed a maintenance team reassembling a massive air conditioning unit for the facility. They had been at it two days, tracing a foul-smelling suspected carcass in the…