I'm ~45 years old. When I was a child this was the case. As a side note Milk came in plastic bags even then. But all carbonated beverages came in multiple sized glass bottles. In the Mid-80's (IIRC) there was an attempt to sell Coke-a-Cola in 2L size bottles but the glass couldn't handle the pressures and were apt to explode easily.
2L plastic bottles don't have this limitation.