Kristalyn

This Marlboro cooler is truly unique! It is a souvenir straight off of the Smokey and The Bandit movie set! My mother's brother acquired it while serving as a diesel mechanic for the 3 Kenworth W900A short-frame semi trucks driven by "Snowman" Jerry Reed. It was Jerry's personnal cooler that he brought to the set with him every day filled with his iced "brew" of Coka Cola, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew and who knows what else! He had it in the truckcab with him while shooting the film, and took it with him wherever he went so that nobody would snatch it from under his seat and reveal the secret ingredient in his brew. He spent so much time with it, that he named it Marlee! On one of the last days of shooting, Jerry took his sweet Marlee, filled her with ice water, and went after Burt Renolds, his cross hairs aimed at the back of Smokey's shirt collar! Burt caught a glimpse of Jerry attempting to stealthily stalk him, in the reflection of his Trans Am and smiled. He spun around right in time to receive minimal damage to his Stetson crown. He lept back catching a few drops on his sleeve, and watched a stream of icey water splash across the eagle on the hood of his black chariot. He turned to face Jerry with an "oh no you didn't" look on his face. "Run Jerry, run!!" shreaked Sally Fields who witnessed the whole thing grinning and bouncing up and down like a school girl. The two men took off all at once, Jerry running for his life with Burt at his heals. Burt reached for Jerry, grabbing what he could-which happened to be Marlee. He threw the cooler mid-stride into the bushes, and continued after his attacker. While the crew watched them trip and fall into the dirt, wrestling, tumbling over and over, my uncle slipped into the bushes where Marlee was hiding, picked up the cooler with two hands like it was a live mortar shell, and side-stepped his way behind the crowd of laughing hair dressers and mic-boom operators over to his toolbox, where he pulled open the bottom drawer, rustled the tools around making room for his "new find". He carefully placed it amongst his wrenches and sockets, and draped a shop rag over the bright red plastic container. After Jerry and Burt finished dusting eachother off and hugging eachother's necks, they headed off to buy eachother a drink and talk about how well the movie will do. Jerry totally forgot about his Marlee until the next morning! He came to the set early. Really early. Frantically he searched the bushes for the beloved container. But, he didn't find it. Marlee wasn't there. He walked slowly to his freshly waxed rig, shoulders drooping, heels dragging, looking like someone shot his best hound dog. He pulled open the cab door, and there, on the seat, was a brand new cooler with Kenworth printed around the top. (It was something my uncle had gotten after graduating from his Kenworth classes but never used.) Jerry stared for a long while at this intruder in his truck, mouth agape. My uncle watched from behind the maintenance truck chewing his fingernails shorter and shorter. Then, Jerry slowly reached for the new blue-colored cooler with boths hands outstretched. He picked it up and looked it over. Letting out a big sigh, he said, as if seeing an old buddy back from the war, "Kennee!!!" That is how we got ahold of this cooler. We thought that it should be displayed rather than hid in the back of our uncle's closet. (He always feared that Jerry would come after him.) He never did.