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Any photos not otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Frank Passic, Albion Historian.
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Morning Star, September 12, 2004, pg. 16 Coming up this Saturday, September 18 is the “all new” Festival of the Forks. Yours truly will have his Albion History booth in a new location, so please note: it will be located in the Alumni Tent on W. Porter St. I’ll be accepting donations of Albion history stuff like photographs, city directories, high school yearbooks, etc. I will also bring my notebooks of printouts with identifications from that 1935 film of the Albion Public Schools. So be sure and drop by sometime during the Festival! By the way, also in 1935 someone made a 16 mm. film of the Albion Centennial celebration. Who has that film today? Albion has had several slogans throughout its history. Some have been better than others. But there was one particular slogan that seemed unite our community. It wasn’t a slogan that was snickered at by residents in nearby towns when they read it or one that needed a lot of explaining. Instead, it was a slogan that “explained it all” with positive connotations, and was well respected both inside and outside of Albion. “Albion-Just Right” was a slogan concocted by a committee of local businessmen at the start of the 20th Century to adequately describe and promote our town. It was used through World War I and into the early 1920s when it was replaced during a fund-raising drive to build the Parker Inn Hotel. The huge Homecoming parade held in August, 1915 featured an “Albion-Just Right” float proudly displaying our city motto. Imagine the possibilities that motto presented: “Albion-Just Right:” for your education, for your business, for your home, for your family, for your children, for your job, etc. The possibilities were endless. The slogan “Albion-Just Right” was also included in Albion’s theme song “Hang Your Hat in Albion,” written in 1912 by Albion High School student Wesley Irma Dorris. That song includes the lines: “Hang your hat in Albion, Albion-Just Right. It’s a happy pretty college town, growth and business all around.” This week we have a special treat. It is a 7½ ounce soda pop bottle manufactured by the Albion Bottling Works, operated by William J. Porr. We estimate this bottle to date around 1903-1910. We wrote about this bottling business in the January 19, 2003 edition of this column. This particular bottle is 2¼” in diameter at the bottom, and is 8” tall, being manufactured with thick glass. The raised lettering on the side bears the text, “Albion Bottling Works, Registered 7½ Ounces. Albion, Mich.” What is even more interesting is the bottom: it contains Albion’s motto! So from our Historical Notebook this week we present a photograph of that motto, as well as the bottle itself. What a novel way to promote our town: from the bottom of a bottle! Enjoy the new Festival of the Forks this weekend on September 18. I’ll see you there. 
Albion Bottling Works
Next: REV. ANDREW J. LEGGETT All text copyright, 2024 © all rights reserved Frank Passic
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