A part of Rocky Point Amusement Park may soon be sold on eBay.

Now Park enthusiasts needn’t get too excited, for it has no particular feature that makes it unique to the park. In fact, had Pat Gallagher not spotted the Pepsi sign outside the Shore Dinner Hall and persistently inquired about it, it would have been swept away to be consigned to the landfill.

Gallagher has affection for Rocky Point but above all, he collects anything to do with Pepsi. His home, not far from the Warwick Public Library, is a trove of Pepsi memorabilia. Hanging from the walls inside his garage are signs, thermometers and placards bearing the distinctive red, white and blue Pepsi logo. Pepsi paraphernalia peppers the backyard and if Gallagher could have found a Pepsi liner for his pool, he surely would have gotten it.

It’s inside the house, however, where the true extent of his collection comes into focus. There is a Pepsi clock and, predictably, a vast assortment of bottles of varying sizes and shapes. Some are nestled in wire carriers and others in wooden crates. They come from different parts of the world and past decades. Some were gifts – getting Dad a birthday Pepsi present has become increasingly challenging for his two sons as the collection grows – and others he has found poking through shops, the Brimfield Antique Show and bought from collectors.

And some of it, like the Pepsi cooler in his “man’s cave,” came directly from the company.

“The compressor went and they were going to toss it out,” Gallagher said pulling open the glass door to reveal even more Pepsi items lined up on its wire shelves. There are toy Pepsi trucks, ashtrays, bottle caps, bottle openers and even a Schweppes tonic bottle filled with Pepsi.

“Someone wasn’t watching,” Gallagher said of the production line responsible for the error.

Gallagher also works for Pepsi. He’s been driving Pepsi trucks for 27 years, so his collection includes Pepsi awards, with his name and years of service etched on them.

Gallagher claims he’s not a fanatical collector like some he has come to know. What he says he enjoys is “the hunt” and the thrill of discovering something new, like the Pepsi wind chime he has hanging from his basement ceiling.

It’s become infectious. When out for dinner, traveling or just about town; the family hones in on anything Pepsi.

That explains why the Rocky Point Pepsi sign jumped out.

The plastic sign that was once lit by interior florescent tubes could be seen from the walkway, where it skirted the Shore Dinner Hall, although overgrown by vines. The sign’s stanchions were bent and the faded lettering offering “Free Parking” was ready to make a trip to the junkyard.

When the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) awarded a cleanup contract for the former park, Gallagher asked the Rocky Point Foundation what would become of the sign and would he be able to save it. The foundation, a non-profit organization to save the park for the public, contacted DEM and the sign was put on a list of items to be salvaged.

Weeks went by and the sign didn’t move from its perch, even after the Shore Dinner Hall came down and heavy equipment was moved in to fill and grade what had once been the foundation to the “world’s largest shore dinner hall.” Gallagher didn’t lose sight of the prize and, in follow-up emails, asked if the sign could be saved.

Last Thursday, Lisa Primiano, of the DEM’s land acquisition and real estate, said the sign had been saved and asked when foundation members would be picking it up.

On Saturday afternoon, after Gallagher finished his route for Pepsi, he and his wife Donna cleaned out their pickup and headed for the park. The gates to the former park exit were closed … but not locked. No arrangements had been made for the pickup, so this was a spur of the moment attempt to retrieve the sign. A sole worker was discovered on the site. He had been working on a giant piece of machinery and turned to shutdown a generator.

“Good thing I saw you, I was about to leave and lock the gate,” he said.

What about the Pepsi sign?

“Oh, it’s right over there,” he said pointing in the direction of the construction trailer.

Gallagher found it. The tailgate was down and the sign fit the pickup like a hand in a glove.

Now the sign will go to the highest bidder, with proceeds going to the foundation and its ongoing efforts on behalf of the park. The eBay bids opened at $40.