treat, a chocolate ice cream soda with whipped cream and a cherry on top! I think I remember they cost 25 cents. Our dentist's office was also nearby and sometimes after we had had our teeth cleaned and chosen a plastic ring from the prize box, we also got a treat at the soda fountain.
Soda fountains in drug stores became popular during Prohibition as a place to meet friends or go on a date.
By the 1950s just about every drugstore had one.
I think my last visit to my small town drugstore soda fountain was in the 1960s.
Well, that was my last visit to a soda fountain until this week anyway.
Look what The Writer found up the Ocean Highway in Murrells Inlet.
Lee's Inlet Apothecary and Soda Fountain
We had chocolate sodas with whipped cream and
a cherry on top, my first one in at least 45 years!
(Actually, it should have looked more like this,
but the young lady was new and she admitted it was her first try.) And it tasted wonderfully of memories anyway! If I closed my eyes, I could imagine the shoebox with my new Buster Brown oxfords sitting right there on the table beside me.
👞. 👞. 👞. 👞
P.S. Another bit of history, the first drug store fountain drinks (1850s) were for people who came to the store to get help with a health problem. They were concoctions of drugs like caffeine and cocaine, bromide and plant extracts, combined with flavors and soda water to make them more palatable.
Never at a drugstore, but Woolworths use to have a fountain and we had an ice cream parlor called Lois's that we use to go to. We'd share a banal split. We have a local sandwich shop, Plum's, and we go there for the occasional banana split.
ReplyDeleteYou know....we never had a soda fountain where I grew up. The drugstore had one of those nut roasters in a glass case. Looks like ThevWriter found a fun place!
ReplyDeleteOH wow, so jealous. I wish I lived within driving distance.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see some history preserved.
ReplyDeleteColin
That is so neat!! Gosh, it reminds me of the drug store in Robbins in the 1950's. I remember once having to get a shot at the doctor's office and he gave me a slip of paper to take to the drug store for an ice cream soda. Wish life could be that sweet and simple again.
ReplyDeleteFunnily on our visit to Mount Dora Florida recently we had ice cream sodas that were amazing. Not something that I can ever recall having in the UK.
ReplyDeleteOh that is so nice. Sometimes you are unexpected thrown back to memory lane by seeing or smelling something. Those childhood memories are so sweet and it seems so long ago sometimes as if we lived in another era. (which is true of course :))
ReplyDeleteHmm, I don't seem to have recorded that memory. Lucky you found that fountain. There was one at Wakulla Springs State Park, in FL. Dan and I had root beer floats when we stopped there in January.
ReplyDeleteOh my I remember those drug stores so well. We had two of them kitty corner less than two blocks away from our home on the East Side in St. Paul. And my first date at one with a girl in 8th grade. Maybe cherry Cokes...:)
ReplyDeleteWe have a soda fountain in town, but rarely go there...it is a tourist trap now, but in the 1960's it was where all the teenagers hung out! I have never had a chocolate soda, but I have had a cherry coke:)
ReplyDeleteIt's all interesting to see photo's and to read.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful memory to cherish..:)
ReplyDeleteWe had a corner grocer a block away that had a soda counter and a penny candy case. I used to stop in after getting off the bus, which dropped me at that corner, after work when I was in high school. The owner lived across the street from us so would call my grandparents to let them know I was there and not to worry about me. Your soda looked tasty even if it wasn't perfectly the way it should have been.
ReplyDeleteHey and you got the cherry on the top too!!!! Way to go, what a find!
ReplyDeleteHappy Days
Wren x
Oh yes! I definitely remember these. They bring back such lovely memories. My husband's family owned a soda fountain shop.
ReplyDeleteDear Cynthia, how well I remember. Our soda fountain also served pancakes also, and once a year--after Sunday Mass--Dad and Mom would take my brother and me there for that treat. Now the old store has been converted into a candy and ice-cream parlor with the old tables and chairs that have the twisted metal legs. It also has the counter where kids love to sit--as do I. I always take visitors there for their favorite ice-cream memories! Peace.
ReplyDeleteBuster brown oxfords, wow - whatever happened to them? I miss the soda fountain days with my grandmother. So many good memories.
ReplyDelete