Charles Hardin of Edmonson County inspects vats used to make premix for various soft drinks. Hardin, a lab technician, mixes most of the syrups, which are packaged in 3- and 5-gallon boxes. Photo by Joe Imel

Estle Hughes sat in an office at Royal Crown Bottling Corp. on Adams Street in Bowling Green and talked about his first days there in 1957, when he was just 17 years old. I started out on a route, the now semi-retired safety director said. I learned all the territory and if anybody was off, Id take that route. He went to mom-and-pop stores and tiny restaurants. When I started here, Pepsi Cola was nothing, he said. Now, ads featuring celebrities like Michael Jackson, Madonna and Britney Spears have made Pepsi a pop of choice around the world. It has joined Coke as a soft drink superpower. They have a lot of money to spend on national advertising, said Anthony McDougle, the sales manager at the Bowling Green RC plant. And we dont. But we are the number one RC bottler, per capita, in the nation. This is the heartland of RC Cola. And the plant doesnt even bottle pop these days. It stopped for good in 1996.We do bag-in-boxes and premix, McDougle said. The bag-in-box is the pop youll drink at a restaurant. Its syrup that is mixed with water as it leaves a fountain. The premix is prepared at the plant. Its what youll be served from a fountain at a Little League game, a small festival, the Balloon Classic or a county fair. But RC isnt all that is mixed at the plant. About 40 snowcone and slushy flavors are mixed there. We have banana, bubble gum, blue raspberry, anything you can think of, McDougle said. We ship it all over the U.S.In January, at the local RC plant, 7UP became a staple, as are Big Red, Sunkist, Sundrop, Diet Rite, root beer and most recently, dnL, which if read upside down, says 7UP.Unlike 7UP, its caffeinated, McDougle said. And its targeted toward the teen audience. Its a very unique, berry-flavored drink. Royal Crown Cola is owned by Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, and McDougle thinks that companys introduction of dnL could help boost the national image of RC.Hughes thinks so, too. RC had some good growth in the 60s and 70s, he said. Art Linkletter and John Glenn were spokespeople. Me and My RC was the slogan. Hughes credits RCs maintained popularity in southcentral Kentucky to C.R. Middleton, the 91-year-old former owner of the Bottling Corp. In the early 1960s, Middleton bought the plant from the family of Harry Hoover, who had opened it here in 1935.Mr. Middleton had the number one bottler for years in Harlan, where he was bottling plant manager, Hughes said. He came here, bought this and turned it into number one. For years, Middletons enthusiasm for RC rubbed off on his employees. He didnt take no for an answer, Hughes said. Employees admired Middletons drive, and many have worked at the plant for years. McDougle has been at the plant for nearly 23 years, and said hes one of the babies there. Its because those at the place are like family, he said. But he also believes what an old RC route man told him when he first started working at the plant as a teen, fresh out of Edmonson County High School. He said, RCs like baby bear soup, McDougle said. Cokes too strong. Pepsis too sweet. And RCs just right.