History
Jim Crocker, Bob's dad started at the MN State Fair the summer of 1969. He had 2 barrels built, and that was the start of a 3 generation business. He was invited to Milwaukee to do Summerfest in 1974. At that time, they had a huge call for stand alone beverage concessions, so people didn't have to wait in line at food concession stands for a soda. He then slowly got into WI State Fair, and ethnic festivals. In 1986, Bob quit his full-time job to take over the running of the business. Jim and his wife, Vi, continued to spend time with Bob, giving breaks to the employees and helped with what they could, and were company to Bob,considering he was in Milwaukee all summer except for the week after Summerfest. Bob continued to build the business to 15 barrels and the float trailer, which I believe was designed and built in 1993. As the boys Ryan and Cameron got older, they went to several festivals to help their Dad. We made several trips to see and help Bob from the time they were young, but the boys were on summer club team for swimming, so there were not alot of open weekends. When Bob passed away in 2013 with pancreatic cancer in the end of April, Ryan and I felt we should continue to carry on where Bob left off. In 2019 it was done. Co-vid hit and Ryan had a summer home with his family and thought about not seeing them every summer since Rainna was 15 months old. He decided he wanted to work in Minneapolis and not leave his family. I will try to find pictures but hopefully this will help.
On Milwaukee News Article:
Molly Snyder Edler: soda jerk.
Shift switch: Root beer barrel worker for a day
By Molly SnyderSenior WriterPublished Jul 05, 2009 at 4:01 PM
For the past 35 years, the root beer barrel has been as ubiquitous at local fairs and festivals as food on a stick. Bob Crocker inherited the business from his father, who started Crocker Root Beer Barrels at the Minnesota State Fair in 1969, and brought the barrels to the Big Gig in 1973.
Crocker owns 14 barrels, one of which is much larger than the others and serves root beer floats. The big barrel is located at the mid-gate on the Summerfest grounds.
At Summerfest, the barrels serve Pepsi products -- which means Mug root beer -- and at State Fair they dispense Coke, which distributes Barq's root beer. Surprisingly, root beer is only a portion of sales, and cola, pink lemonade and water often outsell the sassafras.
"I've always liked A&W root beer the best," says Crocker, laughing.
Most of the barrels are permanently placed on the Summerfest grounds, but Crocker says they are relatively easy to transport on a trailer bed and he occasionally moves them to other locales.
The cost of a soda is $2.50 for a 16 ounces; $4 for 32 ounces and $5 for 44 ounces. Ice water is $1. The prices remained the same for three years.
Crocker says the barrel's beauty floats in the fact people can grab a soda without waiting in a long food line.
"It's a simple concept," he says.
Crocker says his best year was in 1988, simply because the weather was very good for almost the entire 11-day run of Summerfest. "Good weather means good sales," he says.
In 1973, Tom Barbarian -- the man in charge of Summerfest's food and beverage at the time -- approached Crocker's father at the Minnesota State Fair and invited him to sell at Summerfest. Crocker had never heard of the Big Gig, but decided to try it because, coincidentally, he had recently agreed to sell at the Wisconsin State Fair.
On the first day of Summerfest in '73, Crocker's mother and her friend worked in the the barrel and made only $235. Even back then, it was a disappointing amount of money.
"My dad was pretty upset about it and almost wrote off Summerfest as a waste of money," says Crocker.
However, that night, the root beer barrel was on local TV news, and the next day, the lines were 25-people long.
"My dad realized that my mom and her friend couldn't work like that for the rest of Summerfest, so he hired a few people," says Crocker.
Today, Crocker hires 43 local people every summer to work in the barrels. One of his employees has worked for him 18 seasons. Another is a school teacher who has worked in the barrel for 14 summers, and Crocker recently hired the kid of another employee, starting a second-generation of soda slingers.
Clarissa Ramos, a legal assistant and college student, worked in the root beer barrels for eight years and she was kind enough to show me the ropes.
Her barrel is located next to Cedar Crest Ice Cream and she says there are pros and cons to working this particular barrel. Because of the barrel's placement, only one of the two windows is open for business, which makes her job a little easier. However, her barrel is known as "the stinky barrel" because of its closeness to the porta-potties.
Personally, I couldn't decide if the small space felt cozy or made me feel claustrophobic. It definitely brought back memories of my first job working inside a Koepsell's Popcorn Wagon at Summerfest. I also worked in a movie theater for many years, so I was no stranger to soda dispensing.
"This is a fun, low-stress job," says Ramos. "And you can drink all the free soda you want." (I drank two diet Pepsis during my shift.)
The smaller you are, the easier it is to work in a root beer barrel. I am 5 feet 8 inches tall, so I felt a bit Hulkish inside the barrel, but I quickly adapted.
Ramos says she deals with a fair share of drunks, and the worst was a guy who shook her barrel so hard all of the cups fell off the walls. She is also a pro at identifying people who sneak in their own booze and buy a soda to use as a mixer.
"They always order a large, with plenty of ice, but don't want the soda filled all the way to the top," she says. "And they always ask for a straw to use as a stir stick."
During my brief stint as a soda server, it was apparent that ice is the real star of the show. There is someone who comes around regularly to check up on the ice supply, which takes up most of the space in the barrel. Plus, customers are very particular about ice. Some don't want a single cube whereas others complain if there's too much.
"People get funny about their ice," says Ramos.