Merchandiser Full Time

At the Hebbeler family-owned Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of New Haven, one employee touts the achievement of working with four generations of the family over the span of 65 years. Evelyn “Evie” Baer, 84, New Haven, was first hired at the plant in 1953 as a bookkeeper. She said she still remembers how Edward “Ep” and Marie Hebbeler, then owners, drove to her family farm to offer her a job working as a bookkeeper in the office. Baer was wearing her milking overalls when the pair arrived. After a short stint at a shoe factory, she had been recommended to the Hebbeler family through a mutual friend. She said the Hebbelers hiring her was the best thing that ever happened to her. “I can still remember them driving that fancy car up our road,” Baer said. “That day changed my life.” At that time, the plant, founded by Edward A. Hebbler, was a bakery, ice cream shop and ice vendor. Baer says she remembers after church on Sundays, her father would take her to get ice from the Hebbeler shop that they’d use to make homemade ice cream. For the next six and a half decades Baer eagerly has worked at the plant’s office, taking on new challenges and keeping up with the changing business climate. Baer even met her husband, Ralph, through her job when the plant was still located in Downtown New Haven. He worked at a butcher shop nearby and would come around the factory to get ice. The two married in June 1955. She said some of the toughest changes during that time were switching from typewriter to computer, the massive amount of products the plant took on, and, most challenging, leaving the downtown New Haven location in 1965. At that point, she had worked at the downtown location for almost 15 years. Baer recalls riding on the back of a truck that carried her desk to the current plant off Highway 100, as it was taken to the new plant. She says she wanted to make sure none of her papers went missing. Meticulous bookkeeping has always been an important part of the job she say