CAN NEVER FORGET THE COKE VENDING MACHINE THAT NEARLY TOOK ALL THE SKIN OFF MY ARM

In keeping with my new found experimentation with writing about lost treasures of all shapes and sizes which have nothing at all to do with music, I wanted to talk to you tonight about those old Coke vending machines back in the bad old days which you could stick your arm up and pinch a free can of drink out of. 

I have to admit, I did try it a couple of times when I was a youngster, the last time I did I ended up ripping the skin off my arm to the
point of drawing blood, such was my haste when me and my brother were nearly sprung by a guy in a US motel while we were holidaying there back in about `87 when I was 12. 

Ouch it bloody hurt I can tell you, my arm actually was stuck up the drink shute whatever you want to call it for a couple of minutes before I decided to use brute force and just yank my arm out. 

This was in a Motel 6 somewhere in California, not sure where anymore but all I know is that a big black dude come from out of nowhere down a corridor where the Coke machine was and here I was still laying on the floor next to it, trying to make out I tripped over. 

My brother had made a bolt for it and left me there with a bung arm and looking pretty guilty. My first experience of ripping a free can of soft drink out of a Coke fridge was down at Rutherglen Resort in Tasmania in about late 1982 when I was about 8 years old, only that time I didn`t take any skin off my arm trying to be a little crim.

Unfortunately since those days Coca Cola has changed the design of their vending machines, and I`m sure the same applies to Pepsico, to make it impossible for young whippersnappers to put their arm up them to score a free drink. 

I would have to say that the old Coke vending machines have got to go down as urban legends because they provided a lot of entertainment to the kids of yesteryear who were always trying to work out how they could slip their arm up them without getting tapped on the shoulder for being a bad boy. Are they a lost treasure? Definitely!