GASTONIA They met at a vintage car show - both crazy about Pontiacs and Sun-drop.

Mickey Craig of Hickory and Mark Porch of Gastonia collected old bottles and other memorabilia connected to the citrus drink they'd grown up with. Pontiac GTOs and Sun-drop formed the foundation of a friendship that lasted 25 years, right up until Craig, 67, died of cancer in October.

Today, items from the friends' collections are going into the first Sun-drop exhibit in Gaston County, where the "golden cola" was first bottled in the early 1950s. The attention comes as Sun-drop, primarily a regional product, recently launched a national marketing campaign.

"This would make Mickey proud," said Porch, 49, vice president and loan review officer for Citizens South Bank. "He saw the worth in items that other people, at the time, thought was just junk to be thrown away. He appreciated the quality, uniqueness and colorfulness of old advertising items. And now, lo and behold, that stuff is all but gone and what has survived is now appreciated."

The exhibit, which opens May 10 at the Gaston County Museum, is the first in a series that will focus on other local legends like Tony's Ice Cream and RO's Barbecue.

Many items are on loan from Gastonia-based Choice USA Beverage Inc., the first in the nation to bottle the drink.

Sam Robinson, Choice USA's vice president of sales and marketing, called the exhibit a "terrific idea."

Even after the rollout of Sun-drop as a national brand and a big marketing splash on MTV, he said the Charlotte area is still Sun-drop central.

"Things are going great," Robinson said. "We just appreciate the community standing behind us."

Collecting friends

The Gaston exhibit includes Sun-drop signs and thermometers; Sun-drop clocks and caps; and NASCAR items associated with Dale Earnhardt, who pitched Sun-drop in the late 1980s.

The evolution of bottles is documented, beginning with the long-neck, green variety. The original logo is around - a bikini-clad woman inside a coffee cup. The slogan for Sun-drop - also called "Golden Girl Cola" - was "Refreshing as a cup of coffee."

"We hope having all this stuff in one place will bring back some memories," said Stephanie Haiar, the museum's curator of collections. " We want to share some of Sun-drop's history. Many people don't know how it got started."

Sun-drop was invented in 1928 by Charles Lazier of St. Louis. He gave samples of the formula to a friend, Charles Nanney, head of Gastonia's Orange Crush Bottle Co., which later became Double Cola.

Nanney brought the concentrate back to Gastonia, tinkered with the taste and tested it in July 1953 at Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby.

As a teenager, Mickey Craig worked as a curb hop at Shell's Bar-B-Q in Hickory, waiting on Sun-drop-guzzling customers.

Trish Little said her husband was a lifelong fan. He called friends from early days "Sun-drop buddies."

An English major at then-Lenoir-Rhyne College, Craig worked in many different fields - from museums to a mountain guide. His real passion, Little said, was "collecting friends."

The real thing

When Craig and Porch first met at a Greensboro car show, they learned both had owned black 1965 Pontiac GTOs and were Sun-drop fans.

They shared many other interests, such as Catawba Valley history, but always enjoyed swapping tales of the "golden cola."

As a kid, Porch bicycled down Gastonia's Ozark Avenue to Chop's Place where Sun-drop came in Styrofoam cups filled with fine crushed ice.

He remembered lost Sun-drop treasures: the green kite he flew behind Flint Groves Baptist Church; the vinyl hippos dangling from the ceiling at Pacemaker's Supermarket - plugging the drink as the perfect quencher for a mighty thirst.

Today, Porch drinks a diet version of his favorite elixir on weekdays and treats himself to "a real Sun-drop' on Saturdays.

When he tours the exhibit, he'll sip the real thing.

"I'll think of my old Sun-drop buddy," Porch said. "And say 'cheers.'"