Here is your chance to own a piece of Sun Drop Soda history.
Floyd Hartwig, founder of the Shawano bottling company famous for Sun Drop, is auctioning off the entire contents of his longtime home near downtown Shawano.
Hartwig, 88, who recently moved into an assisted-living center, is ready to part with a lifetime of furnishings, collectibles and memorabilia.
A public auction scheduled for Saturday inside the house at 420 W. Fifth St. will include many of Hartwig’s personal belongings associated with his renowned company, Twig’s Beverage Inc.
“There’s all kinds of things in there,” Hartwig said. “I was kind of a collector.”
Starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, the auction is open to the public, which means anyone can show up and bid on one of Hartwig’s Sun Drop mementos, such as bottle openers, advertisements, baseball caps and more.
The house also contains a vast inventory of non-Sun Drop items, including musical instruments, movie projectors, record players, furniture, glassware and tools.
Auctioneer Clayton McHugh said he expects plenty of interest among bidders who are either curious to see inside Hartwig’s home or who are eager to get their hands on a small artifact from the life of a legendary Shawano business figure.
“He’s an icon for the city,” McHugh said.
Hartwig, a Shawano native, was serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War in the 1950s when he decided to go into the soft-drink bottling business. He sent his military paychecks home to his mother with instructions to start purchasing empty glass bottles.
Once back from the war, Hartwig opened a bottling plant that still operates at 711 S. Washington St. After dabbling in root beer and other flavors, he was approached by the creator of Sun Drop, and he agreed to begin bottling and shipping the carbonated citrus-flavored soda.
Twig’s Beverage and Sun Drop have been synonymous ever since.
Hartwig and his wife, Valda, originally lived in an apartment over the bottling plant. But the couple in the 1970s bought and remodeled the house on Fifth Street, which originally had been designed as a rooming house for nurses at nearby Shawano Medical Center.
After relocating periodically with their four children, Hartwig and his wife resettled back on Fifth Street in approximately the year 2000. Valda Hartwig died in 2007, and declining health last year prompted Floyd Hartwig to move to an assisted-living center.
Dan Hartwig, who now owns and operates Twig’s Beverage, said his father decided to hold a public auction at the old house. Family members salvaged some photographs and other personal items, but otherwise everything on the property is for sale.
That includes an old-style player piano, an Italian motor scooter, a curved-glass china cabinet, a tabletop Victrola record player, a collection of emerald-colored glassware and a Rockwood mobile home.
Dan Hartwig said bidders will not be disappointed by the volume of Sun Drop memorabilia and other items that his father left behind.
“He was the kind of guy who never threw away anything,” Dan Hartwig said. “They’ll find a lot in there.”
Conducted by Hometown Real Estate & Auction Co. of Shawano, the auction is expected to last for several hours Saturday. There is no charge for members of the general public to attend and register as bidders in case they spot an item they want to bid on.
Floyd Hartwig, who does not plan to attend, said although it would be difficult letting go of so many treasured belongings, he still enjoys many good memories of his days in business.
“You’ve got to let go,” he said. “I enjoyed all my life.”
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