Ad describes the item as being "3 ft. sq.", not 3 sq. ft. Three squared is nine.

Either the ad agency is being duplicitous, or perfect squares were treated as common knowledge. Fascinating either way.

It absolutely takes up more square footage than 3.
My guess is 6 Minimum. 3'w X 2'd.

In my small town Wisconsin, the local bottler carried white soda, along with every other conceivable flavor imaginable at the time. The black cherry was exceptionally good. Mention "white soda" to most people today and they give me a blank stare.

Here's a drawing of how the cooler worked

At first I didn't understand how this contraption works. Then I read this:

That cap is not off that bottle. If you popped off the cap and tried to hold it in your lips against the bottle there would be pop running all over the place.

[It's the lip of the bottle, the rounded glass reflecting and magnifying the light from the flash. Note the absence of the crimped rim of a cap as seen in the bottle atop the dispenser. -tterrace]

[The rim refracts light differently so that you don't see the dark-colored pop through it, which make it look a little like a bottle cap. Note that you can see the crease in Billy's lips right through the glass. - Dave]

Today I would consider the bologna being sold in the past ten or twenty years quite inferior to what we had as kids in the l940's and 50's. In l939 what do you suppose they were referring to as "old style"?

[I don't know, but I see you have an old-style typewriter. No "1" key! - Dave]

Nehi was the final word in orange soda in the 1950s. Expansions into other flavors were not winners.

I think the Goop and Gooey stuff is where the cap was removed and the spillage solidified into the mess at the bottom of the coin change receptacle.

This is the fourth person in the Lamoille general store wearing the same kind of overalls (two boys, two men), but we’ve yet to see where they’re offered in the store.

It looks like this cooler backs up to the stove in the previous photograph. See the Dr. Peppers on the floor in the left of this image and on the right by Gramps plus the electrical cord for the fan (looks like a radiator fan attached to a large electric motor) to the right of the 7 UP sign. Finally there is the damper handle just to the left and below the bologna sign.

It's going to take him a long time to finish with the cap still on the bottle.

[Look again. The cap is off the bottle. - Dave]

of how much I miss ice-cold bottled pop! Drinking it out of a can or plastic bottle just isn't the same.

Click to embiggen.