> Hopefully someone can help me out here. I've looked all over the 'net (read: eBay & Yahoo) for an item and can't seem to find it.
>
> What I'm looking for is one of those lemonade/punch dispensers like you see in small cafes. I'm talking about the kind that has a pump and keeps the lemonade or punch constantly swirling inside. No, I'm not opening a restaurant, this is going to be a gift. I know it seems like a strange gift, but there is some sentimental value attached to these things.
>
> eBay didn't have any for sale and various searches didn't yield any useful results. I was hoping someone here might know where to buy one or have more patience at searching the 'net than I do.
>
> Faux Pas: As the resident "finder of things", I thought this would present a pretty good challenge for you. :)
>
> On a side note, isn't it strange how we attach sentimental value to such a silly thing as a drink dispenser?
>
> Kel"now I'm thirsty"ly

Check out all the antique stores in your neighborhood. If an item has been made more than 25 years, it is going to be in antique stores. I can remember those things as far back as 1950. Be careful what words you use in your search on eBay. Try using singular and plural. Think what you would call it if you had one for sale. Be sure you set the search engine to look in text as well as title. Look under "soda fountain," "drink machine," "lemonade machine" etc. Then substitute "dispenser" for machine and run it again.

You would be surprised what people will buy and maybe more surprised at what they do with it. I sold a guy a five-gallon galvanized kerosene can
and he said that he was going to hang it from the ceiling in his den. A lady bought some fishing lures and said she was going to frame them and put them in her bathroom to go with her fish wallpaper. I know a guy who keeps a 1948 Whizzer motor bike in his living room. I've seen bull-tongue turning plows in front yards surrounded by flowers. I've sold several wheelbarrows to people who were going to use them as planters. One lady bought a pair of antique ice scates to hang on the wall in her mountain cabin. There is no place to ice scate around there. The other day I saw an antique cedar churn on a front porch.
Beer and softdrink signs are hanging in dens and game rooms everywhere. I talked to a guy who says his whole house is decorated with Gulf Oil items from signs to oil cans. One couple here in town has a worn-out tire off Dale Earnhardt's car as a base for a glasstop coffee table. A lemonade/fruit punch despenser sounds pretty normal to me. I wish I had one.
Howard