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Old 01-20-2021, 00:11   #1
Penn
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Soda fountain memories

When I was a kid, my brothers and I, used to go to the drug store, which had a sods fountain. We get lemon cokes with real lemon and vanilla root beer floats for a dime.

I miss those one rite tabs and the 5 cents we assemble as a group to place our order, it was a different time, but I look back and wish I could remember all of those little things.

Funny what you miss.
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Old 01-20-2021, 00:23   #2
Old Dog New Trick
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Funny what you miss?

Yes, that’s a little before my time but, I miss a movie night out for $0.50 and a bag of popcorn for $0.10. I miss Coke machines for a quarter and if you brought the bottle back you got a nickel back.

America has had good times and will have good times again. Keep the faith, it’ll come back with a vengeance. I guarantee it!
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Old 01-20-2021, 10:09   #3
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Funny what you miss.
We had a Woolworth's where I grew up, but never sat at the fountain counter. It was all full of grown-up people and there was too much neat stuff to see at the Army Navy Surplus next door. Summers in TX I miss racing my cousin to the closet to see who snagged the .410 and who got the .22 for the walk to "town" (translation, a little shack store w/2 gas pumps outside Smyer) to get a pop out of the big cooler with the coldest water this side of heaven. 5 cents for the little Coke® and a dime for the tall ones. Livin' large.
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Old 01-20-2021, 10:32   #4
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I miss collecting pop bottles turning them in then taking the money and buying 10 cent cap guns and caps at the dime store when I stayed at my grandmas house in the big city.
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Old 01-21-2021, 19:15   #5
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Ah Those days

In Arizona in the 50’s all the Orange juice you could drink for 10c, and all the grapefruit juice for 5c.

We would ride our bikes, in the Arizona sun, 5 miles to Tempe Beach swimming pool for swim lessons (we already swam like fishes), and after it was over hide-out in the bathroom for 10 minutes, go back and swim all day for “free”.

Go with the Indian kids for a day at the reservation, riding in the back of an old pick-up truck .

Horseback riding at Weldons stables in Papago Park. Free to us during week days ‘cause their boys were my best buds.

Shooting my .22 off the back porch, with no problem…if I paid for my ammo..

I keep remembering these things, and can’t tell what I had for dinner yesterday.

SnT
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Last edited by Surf n Turf; 01-21-2021 at 19:16. Reason: typo
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Old 01-21-2021, 21:19   #6
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We had a Woolworth's where I grew up, but never sat at the fountain counter. It was all full of grown-up people and there was too much neat stuff to see at the Army Navy Surplus next door. Summers in TX I miss racing my cousin to the closet to see who snagged the .410 and who got the .22 for the walk to "town" (translation, a little shack store w/2 gas pumps outside Smyer) to get a pop out of the big cooler with the coldest water this side of heaven. 5 cents for the little Coke® and a dime for the tall ones. Livin' large.
HA! I was born and raised in North Texas.
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Old 01-22-2021, 14:00   #7
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Memories.

I'd take the some of the money from my paper route into Mrs. Farrel's Drug Store in New Orleans and splurge a Vanilla Malted Milk Shake. The stainless steel mixing cup would be filled with ice cold milk, a few scoops of malt powder would be added, a few scoops of ice cream, then the mixing cup was lifted onto a blender with a wavy tip rod. Blended for a few seconds, poured into a deep V-shaped ice cold glass from the freezer. She would leave the glass short an inch from the top, but then grabbed a stainless steel pressurized dispenser and topped off the glass with a generous portion of real cream whipped cream. It was topped off with a cherry, and when she handed you the glass, she also handed you the mixer cup so you could pour yourself a half glass refill when you finished the first part. It came with a spoon for when it was thick, and a straw for when it melted.

35 cents. 1965.

Probably over 1,000 calories each.

But that was when a quarter could get you into a movie (15cents), and get you a Coke and a small popcorn (a dime).
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Old 01-22-2021, 14:45   #8
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MEMORIES:

In 1965 was back on Okinawa C Company 1st SFG(Abn) Joined the VFW Post #9723 I had a San Miguel beer for .25 cents. My base pay was $184.50 E-4.
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Old 01-22-2021, 15:19   #9
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Memories.

I'd take the some of the money from my paper route into Mrs. Farrel's Drug Store in New Orleans and splurge a Vanilla Malted Milk Shake. The stainless steel mixing cup would be filled with ice cold milk, a few scoops of malt powder would be added, a few scoops of ice cream, then the mixing cup was lifted onto a blender with a wavy tip rod. Blended for a few seconds, poured into a deep V-shaped ice cold glass from the freezer. She would leave the glass short an inch from the top, but then grabbed a stainless steel pressurized dispenser and topped off the glass with a generous portion of real cream whipped cream. It was topped off with a cherry, and when she handed you the glass, she also handed you the mixer cup so you could pour yourself a half glass refill when you finished the first part. It came with a spoon for when it was thick, and a straw for when it melted.

35 cents. 1965.

Probably over 1,000 calories each.

But that was when a quarter could get you into a movie (15cents), and get you a Coke and a small popcorn (a dime).
Exactly the making & dispensing of a fountain shake, and cost of a movie that I can remember. Maybe this is one of those "more that unites than divides" threads.

Joker, I was raised in SoCal (bicycles to Santa Monica beach past a young Clint Eastwood's first little house). But parents were refugees from TX, starting with Mom leaving to go make P-38's when Dad shipped out. During the Leave It to Beaver era we did a couple weeks each year though back to their parents AO in Smyer & Lubbock, and the drive-in movie in Levelland. Standing around that aforementioned soda cooler, old guys had 1911's on their belts and a granny in bib overalls might have a short barreled Colt revolver stuck in her pocket. Nobody paid it any mind, it was just getting dressed. "...fer snakes & such..."
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Old 01-22-2021, 16:13   #10
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Scouring the ditches of rural NE Louisiana for "coke" bottles to return for the deposit. Bought lots of candy and BB's, then .22 ammo with "free money." Those days a kid could go into just about any store and pick up .22 ammo off the shelf.

I remember once when I was around 10 my mom getting frantic because she couldn't find me along the usual roads...because I had expanded my territory to more than 3 miles from the house! The older my friends and I got the further out we rode our bikes in search of bottles.

In the south, at least my part, all soda bottles were "coke bottles" regardless of what brand/flavor of soda they contained.
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Old 01-22-2021, 16:50   #11
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Memories

It enjoyable reading the similarities of collecting bottles along the roadside as a boy.

Those “free ones” were the best cold drinks around.

Had my first job at the farm stand where we turned in the bottles...picking string beans, peppers, tomatoes, and squash...paid by the bushel basket. 9 years old and earned my own pocket money. First purchase was a transistor radio for keeping me company in the field. Then listened to ball game broadcasts at night under the covers. Had a crystal radio kit too and pulled in broadcasts on clear evenings from afar.

Good Memories.
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Old 01-22-2021, 17:59   #12
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We had a Woolworth's where I grew up, but never sat at the fountain counter.

This was a big treat for us back in the day! We rarely had money to dine out.

I miss the penny candy store, we called it the green store. Because you know...it was painted green.
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Old 01-22-2021, 18:11   #13
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In the south, at least my part, all soda bottles were "coke bottles" regardless of what brand/flavor of soda they contained.
We lived in Beaumont, TX, when I did the same. We usually drank RC Cola, but the bottles we found or begged from neighbors were "Coke". The best thing about the real Coke bottles were seeing who could find the bottle from the farthest city (for the youngsters: they had the city that they are bottled in molded on the bottom). What would kids do today if all of the computer games disappeared?
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Old 01-23-2021, 04:14   #14
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What would kids do today if all of the computer games disappeared?
There's a thread in itself.
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