They came. They saw. They collected. And they had a party while they were at it.
On Saturday, Johnson City’s Geff and Dolores Moore opened their Huffine Road home for the 26th anniversary National Pop Can Collectors Can-Vention.
About 15 member families from across the eastern half of the country turned out for the gathering in the Moores’ backyard, where they munched on sandwiches, chips and homemade ice cream and washed it all down with — what else? Soda pop.
For this bunch of soft-drink connoisseurs, Geff made sure there was an interesting variety to choose from, including lots of Johnson City’s own unique, vitamin-enriched Dr. Enuf from Tri-City Beverage. “As can collectors, we like to support the off-brands as much as possible,” he said.
Collections of antique and unusual cans, can series and soft-drink paraphernalia were displayed on tables set up across the Moores’ lawn. Old friends, reunited for the first time since last year’s can-vention in Rockford, Ill., admired each other’s finds and wheeled and dealed in their favorite collectibles.
The Moores showed off Geff’s collection of 8,000-plus cans — a modest number for a NPCC member — lining the walls and ceilings of their basement.
And “Canjoe John” VanArshdall of Blountville serenaded the crowd with tunes plucked from one of his original, handmade “canjoes” — one-string, banjo-like instruments fashioned from beer or soft drink cans.
While not a NPCC club member himself, VanArshdall said his business has made him a “can-noisseur” of unique drink cans since almost all his customers “have their own (favorite) flavor” and when they see it, they want it.
NPCC director Bruce Mobley of Macon, Mo., agreed. “These collectors all have their own niche. There are lots of specialists who go for specific brands. Some want one of each. Some collect sports series. Me, I go for the older cans, anything pre-1970s.”
Mobley, who puts together the club’s “Can-O-Gram” newsletter, said while the club has only about 100 members, they are spread out all over the world and include collectors from as far away as Australia, Italy and Holland.
At the peak of NPCC’s membership, charter member Tom Kirschbaum of Rockford said, the club had about 225 members from six continents.
Kirschbaum explained how pop-can collecting sprang from beer-can collecting and how many of today’s soda can collectors are the children of beer-can collectors of the 1970s.
“Beer cans were very popular in the ’70s,” he said. “There were lots of shows and older collectors would bring along their kids. The kids would sit around and be bored so a lot of them started collecting soft-drink cans. I was one of those (kids).”
Dave Tanner, author of the pop can collectors’ guide, Collectible Soda Cans 2003, a second-edition publication about five years in the making, said he’s been collecting cans for 25 years but a member of NPCC for only the last two.
“I didn’t know the others existed,” said the Simsbury, Conn., resident. “The Northeast isn’t a big area for can collecting. . . The Midwest seems to have a big interest. They have a lot of soda-can shows there.”
Some of the oldest soft-drink cans going, Tanner said, are cone top cans with bottle-cap tops that came out around 1938 and were produced through the early 1950s. “A lot of people remember them from when they were kids. It’s kind of a nostalgic item.”
Among the most recent collectible cans, Geff Moore said, are a number of patriotic designs issued in the wake of Sept. 11.
Dolores Moore said the club members keep in touch throughout the year via e-mail and the club newsletter and hammer out trades in advance of the annual swap meet.
As for landing the national Can-Vention here in Johnson City, local business leaders could take a lesson from the Moores. “We just kind of volunteered at last year’s convention,” Geff said.
“The fact that we’re an hour away from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge didn’t hurt either,” he said, since many of the club members plan their vacations around the annual gathering.
NPCC 26th Anniversary cake
Geff Moore adding cans to his collection
Can-Joe-John showing us the CanJoe
The show in action.
For more information about the NPCC, see the club’s Web site, www.one-mans-junk.com/NPCC. More information about VanArshdall’s canjoes and his canjoe music CD One Man, One String, One Can, One Band, can be found at http://www.canjoe.com/.