WEBVTT

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At one time, there were

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about a hundred seltzer
shops in New York City,

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maybe more.

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At one time, there were
thousands of seltzer men,

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maybe more.

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At one time, there were
millions and millions

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and millions of seltzer bottles,

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maybe more.

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Now, there’s

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a handful of seltzer men,

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and I think if I put ten
out that\'s too much.

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You probably will never see more
seltzer bottles in one spot than the

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7,000 right here.

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And the business is at best an anachronism.

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It\'s something that shouldn\'t exist.

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It\'s like looking at a dinosaur
walking down Manhattan.

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Remember These Days

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My canvas is my seltzer bottles.

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I work them,

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I mold them,

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I create them, I fix them, I
buff them, I polish them,

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and then I deliver them.

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My ears are so sensitive

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to the sound of the squirting,

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I could tell you if a tube is broke inside.

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It\'s like someone who knows
how to tune a piano.

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People are relying on you.

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If I had to walk on a handtruck
from here to Manhattan,

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I might end up doing that

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because you feel the sense of obligation.

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My kid was born,

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I came to the emergency
room when Joey was born,

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and my wife will tell you,

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she was going through labor pains

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and I said Zila I wished
you had the baby already

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because I need to get to the route.

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She kicked him out. It
was 5 in the morning.

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I said, Oh, he\'s a cute baby.

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I gave Joey a kiss.

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They cleaned him up

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and I said look, I\'ll see you later.

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But that’s a seltzer man.

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You’re devoted no matter what.

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I was born to a father
who was a seltzer man

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and also I am the grandson
of a seltzer man.

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My grandfather Jake had a
horse and wagon in 1919,

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so this business is over 90 years old.

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In those years, there were no phones.

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People couldn\'t call you.

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When they wanted a delivery,
you would call out the window,

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Mr. Seltzer man, bring
me up a case of seltzer

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and that\'s how you knew they needed it.

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So, it\'s Mrs. Schwartz in apartment 2B

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or Mrs. Mandifredi in apartment 5C

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and you put the case up and
you walked it up there.

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A cases of these bottles
filled weighs 70 pounds.

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Hello?

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It’s the Seltzer man.

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Yeah, OK.

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You put that on your shoulder,
you walk up four flights,

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you do that two, three times in a row,

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your body is tired.

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You got beautiful for me,

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wide awake.

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Wide awake, I was just lying down.

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You know, when I came here, your
husband was unfortunately died,

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but I liked him.

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He looked forward, I used to sleep.
He would–

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I would get there 6:30 in the
morning, her husband was smiling.

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Good morning, good to see you.

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He was a...

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Good guy, yeah.

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Great guy.

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He was a great guy, yeah.

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Then, I got your daughter’s bottles now,

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down in Tribeca.

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Well, glad I can be part
of your life still.

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Yes, yes.

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I’m glad to see you too.

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We live in a different world now.

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We live in a society that
accepts disposability.

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You go to a store, buy a plastic bottle,

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fill a landfill.

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Like my kids, they get a phone now,

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then they want another phone.

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They want the fastest,
slickest, newest, best.

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What I offer for people is an option.

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It\'s called stability.

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Sometimes, old is better.

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There are things that were meant to last.

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In the 1950’s, when I was a child,

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my father made three to
four hundred dollars a week

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which was like the equivalent
of $4,000 a week now.

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It\'s a funny thing about my father,

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he never was particularly fond
of being the seltzer man.

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He never was proud of it.

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My route, it retraces the steps
that my grandfather took.

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I have echoes in my brain.

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I feel my grandfather going up the stairs,

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and it\'s weird how life
is imitating the past.

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It’s almost like déjà vu,
I\'ve been there before.

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The last conversation I ever
had with my grandfather,

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he was 95 years of age.

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I said,

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Grandpa Jake,

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I want to know what it was like to
be a seltzer man in those years.

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And he said to me,

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it was a hard way to make a living.

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I wish you’d do something else.

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I was out of college. I
was 20 years of age.

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I was about to start law
school in the fall.

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And then a weird thing happened.

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I was traveling all around Europe

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and then finally when I landed
- your father almost died.

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He collapsed going up the stairs.

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He had emphysema

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and it\'s hard for him to do the route.

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I told my father, you know something,

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I’m not going to start law school now.

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I\'m going to take a leave for six months.

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I\'m going to give you a hand until
you get your strength back.

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Six months became six years.

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Six years became 37 years

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and now instead of being a 21-year-old kid

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with the world ahead of him

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I\'m a 59-year-old man

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looking back at my life in retrospect,

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not regretting anything I did.

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Alright, bye bye now.

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Bad economy, good economy.

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Recession, depression, frustration.

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It doesn’t matter.

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People will still buy seltzer.

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I have people telling me, Look,

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I need your seltzer.

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It\'s my medicine.

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I\'d rather not go to the hairdresser

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or buy any new clothes but
I\'m not giving you up.

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I am so happy that people want what I have.

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At the end of the day, because of you,

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numerous people were made happy.

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My father used to say,

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Once you are a seltzer
man, anything will be easy

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because you know you\'re going to be

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the order taker, the bottle fixer,
the deliverer, the accountant.

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When you\'re done at the end of the day,

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you have some money to pay the bills.

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But it’s never that you get
really ahead of yourself.

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I have to keep working

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because I don\'t see any point in time

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where I just lay back and

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go on vacation like other people do.

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This is the life I’ve chosen.

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My father on his deathbed,

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he\'s under medication.

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He\'s being sedated.

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So it’s just trying to make
him comfortable at the end.

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You know, I remember I
bought on his birthday,

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June first, a Father\'s Day card.

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And then by Father\'s Day he was gone.

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And, I looked at the card,

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and I said, my God,

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I want to bring it to my father.

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But, you know, I want to bring it to him.

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And I don\'t know the address to heaven.

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And then I looked at the card,

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and I put it down and I
said, you know what,

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You will never be forgotten.

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Because as long as I got a bottle to sell

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and that route and people
who care about me,

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I\'ll never forget it because

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you may have hated the route

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but we\'ll never forget you.

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I feel that I have the obligation

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to take these bottles and preserve them.

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They’re as valuable as the
pictures of my ancestors.

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Old seltzer men back in the days,

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you\'ll see their names etched in here.

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It\'s almost their tombstone.

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It\'s a monument to these people,

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to their legacy.

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I mean here’s a seltzer bottle. I mean,

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there\'s a horse and wagon on the etching.

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J. Z. Joseph Zelman.

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Look at the bottle how
smooth it is from age.

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This is timeworn.

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This is beautiful.

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Here\'s a bottle that\'s on my route.

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It\'s a horse-drawn wagon,
like my grandfather.

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My God, this bottle has survived 90 years.

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It was used by people. By my
mother when she was a baby.

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Give me a few minutes, I\'ll buff it up.

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I refit it.

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I put it on the route,

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and then, you know what?

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I don\'t care if it\'s someone with
the last nickel in their pocket,

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or a billionaire.

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As long as they enjoy these bottles,

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I feel that my grandfather

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and his legacy is preserved

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and I feel that my father
also is remembered.

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And that everyday that this
product is enjoyed by people,

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it pays tribute to them.

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I have no plans to retire.

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It\'s the furthest thing from my mind.

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I have plans to go and work tomorrow,

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work the next day, work in
5 years, work in 20 years.

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I would hope that I could
just keep working.

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Whenever the day might be that I
fill my last bottle of seltzer,

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I don\'t know what\'s going
to happen behind me.

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I don\'t know if there will
be anyone to fill my void.

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I don’t think it will be my kids.

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I don\'t know if that\'s in the cards.

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But, you know, if they choose to pursue it,

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they certainly got enough bottles to use.

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If that’s their choice.

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And I hope one day down the road,

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even if my kids are not seltzer men,

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and they, all they have is a few
bottles from my father to remember

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the route, and us and these days.

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My kids, both of them

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will say, I remember my father

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and he made me into what I am today

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and I\'ll never forget him.