It's automatic when I talk with old friends
The conversation turns to girls
We knew when their hair was soft and long
And the beach was the place to go
Suntanned bodies and waves of sunshine
The California girls and a beautiful coastline
Warmed up weather let's get together
And do it again
This anon lived this life.
And wishes he could do it again
I guess I should've kept my mouth shut
When I started to brag about my car
But I can't back down now, because
I pushed the other guys too far
She makes me come alive
And makes me wanna drive
Damn.
The memories of the California girls, the cars, the whole southern California life that I grew up in are still very strong.
But it all started to slide downhill when Moonbeam entered the picture.
Look at it now.
The only Coors product still brewed exclusively in Golden, CO.
My friends and I used to steal cases of Banquet from the refrigerated railcars lined up outside our local distributor.
I ended up working in the Coors network and met the owner of that distributor and told him what we did.
"I guess it was worth the investment." is all he said and shook my hand.
Sucking down a Banquet as I type.
I can still smell the intermingling of Heaven Scent perfume and Coppertone.
What a time to be alive.
It is still brewed with Rocky Mountain Spring Water.
They changed it back in the 80's when they tried to expand to the east coast and built a canning plant in Virginia (as I recall) where the water was an exact match to the water in Golden.
They bought the water rights and renamed the location Rocky Mountain.
Then they engineered and bult glass lined refrigerated rail cars to transport the beer concentrate and can it at the new location.
Hence the slogan change.
Banquet is brewed at 15 to 17% alcohol content before it is cut with water before sending it through the tax meters. I learned this when I was in the Coors network and got to spend 3 days at the brewery (there was still only one) for training.
I even partied with the Coors family a couple times, attended a Superbowl with the, yada, yada, yada.
But there have been a few mergers since then and now all of their other brands are brewed at former Miller breweries under the corporate banner of Miller-Coors.
The Coors mystique was a real thing, and there was a lot of Smokey and The Bandit kinds of smuggling going on back in the 70's.
Reminiscent of when California sprayed malathion across the entire state back in the early 80's to control the Mediterranean Fruit Fly.