Bottling plant generated memories
Fitzgerald’s an institution in Amsterdam
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, 9-03-05
For Amsterdam native and former bottling plant employee Richard Sidlauscus, the 1960s bring back memories of Mountain Dew.
Sidlauscus, who now lives in Wallingford, Connecticut, said that when Fitzgerald’s Bottling Works started carrying Mountain Dew, they couldn’t keep up with the summertime demand.
“The limiting factor was the number of glass bottles,” Sidlauscus said. “For some reason, it was not possible to get bottles from the glass manufacturer without a long lead time. This meant that in order to produce the soda, we had to rely on returns.”
Sidlauscus started working at Fitzgerald’s in 1962, at first helping a route driver who had been hurt.
“After that, I sorted bottles until I went away to college in September,” Sidlauscus said. “You probably wouldn't believe what man can do to an empty bottle. I worked there at various jobs for a few summers.”
Founded in 1882, Fitzgerald’s Bottling Works was located at 465 East Main Street Extension in the town of Amsterdam. A previous column recalled Harold Watermann, a soda machine expert employed at Fitzgerald’s until shortly before his death in 1971. Back in 1925, Fitzgerald’s had been one of the exhibitors in the Amsterdam Progress Exhibition set up in the East End to tout the city’s businesses.
Company president Gerald Fitzgerald lived with his wife across the street from the plant, was known as “Fitz” and died in 1970, according to Sidlauscus.
Long affiliated with Pepsi Cola, Fitzgerald’s relocated to Freeman’s Bridge Road in Glenville in the late 1960s. Apparently, the firm closed some years after that.
Sidlauscus’ cousin Benedict Karutis was an executive with the bottling works and took over the operation when Fitzgerald died. Karutis has retired to Florida.
“My father (Frank) worked for Fitzgerald’s as well,” Sidlauscus said. “He started in either late 1957 or early 1958. He had worked at Mohawk Mills both before and after the war, but the job moved down south and he didn't want to relocate. So he got a job with Fitzgerald’s as a manager/supervisor of the bottling plant and delivery trucks.”
The best-known Fitzgerald product was ginger ale. In addition to regular ginger ale, Sidlauscus said the company bottled golden ginger ale, with a bit more tang. The ginger ales came in green 32 ounce bottles, and had yellow paper labels. Fitzgerald’s made a lemon-lime soda called Lithiated Lemon. The firm distributed Teem, a lemon-lime soda, under franchise. Fitzgerald’s sold Saratoga Vichy, but got it already bottled from Saratoga. The Amsterdam bottler also had an exclusive for Schweppes products.
Fitzgerald’s bottled its own grape and orange soda plus two other flavors—lemon and cream.
“The lemon soda was yellow and had a sweet lemony flavor,” Sidlauscus said. “I have never seen it anywhere else. Lemon-lime, yes, but just lemon, no. The other was cream soda. Now a lot of other bottlers made a cream soda. However, there was one feature about Fitzgerald’s cream soda that set it apart: it was red in color. The flavor was cream like all the others, but all the others were a pale brown color.”
YET ANOTHER BOTTLER
Amsterdam had another small bottling plant that lasted into the 1960s, according to Sidlauscus.
“It was an extremely small operation, located on Forbes Street near where Lark Street intersects with it,” Sidlauscus said. “The bottling plant was located in a garage attached to a house.”
According to city directories, the 124 Forbes Street bottler was the William D. Redding Bottling Works. It existed in the 1930s and was headed by Redding and, apparently after his death, by his widow, Mary Redding. Fitzgerald’s and Redding did home soda deliveries as late as the 1960s.
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