A Favorite from Times Passed

When I was a kid growing up, my community had what everybody called a drug store.  But it was much more than a pharmacy.  It had a pharmacy off on one side but it also a variety section where you could get all kinds of miscellaneous stuff, mostly small stuff, household stuff, stuff you need and use around the house all the time.  This was back before every grocery store of any size also had a pharmacy.  Back before the days of big box stores like WalMart, Shopko, Kohls, Fred Meyers, or other stores like that.  So the drug store had a pharmacy and a "notions" area.  But then, off on the other side of the store was the soda fountain.  You could get all kinds of soda, or pop, as some people call it.  You could also get ice cream treats there, like malts, shakes, ice cream cones, or ice cream by the dish. At more elaborate fountains you could sometimes get limited grill items, like hot dogs, hamburgers, and fries, or sometimes desserts, like pie or cake.  But usually it was just soda drinks and ice cream stuff. The fountain was a counter that ran usually the full length of that side of the room and had seats, stools you would sit on to place and then eat your order.  At the counter was usually the only seating.  The village drug store was never very big, usually just a few aisle of stuff with the pharmacy on one side and the fountain on the other.  No cashier up front.  If you bought anything but medicine you paid at the fountain.

Anyway, at these fountains they mixed the soda right there, after you placed your order.  Served in glassware, tall and fancy.  A few squirts of flavored concentrate and some carbonated water.  Behind and under the counter were several canisters of carbonated water and above the counter were pumps, push it down for a serving of the flavor concentrate.  Sometimes fast food places now days will serve their condiments from similar pumps. At the fountain, someone behind the counter would mix it up for you and serve whatever you ordered.  Usually there were several varieties of flavors, root beer, orange, sarsaparilla, raspberry, cola, and others. The adventurous could get what was called a "suicide", a little squirt of every flavor, if you were so inclined.  I was never much of a fan of sarsaparilla but one of my favorites was a flavor called ironport.  It was something akin to root beer but a bit different.  Gradually, as soda fountains began disappearing from drug stores, and big soda companies changed the way soda was canned, bottled, and delivered to the soda consuming public, ironport became less and less common, and then harder and harder to find.  The last fountain I was ever aware of that sold it was in a very small little town in central Utah.  When that place closed I didn't know where to find it any more.  Then, years later, as the Internet began to mature, I found a place online that sold the flavored concentrate.  But that meant I had to find the carbonated water and mix it myself.  I tried it a few times with seltzer water but could never get the combination right, to what I remembered it, so I finally gave up and ironport soda went the way of several other favorite treats from my youth.  It was gone.  My experiments with the concentrate were 10 or 15 years ago, or more.

Then recently, while we were visiting Mossbeere and his family over the Christmas holidays, we took a field trip one morning into town.  We stopped at a nostalgic looking place and went inside.

They had a counter and a seating area and sodas, a large variety of soda, including ironport!

They had it at the counter or you could buy it in bottles. I was amazed!  Well, or course I had have some!

I got a couple of bottles for later and a cup for right then, along with some yummy ice cream.

It had been so long I wasn't sure what to expect. Memories fade, you know.  But it was good, and the memories came back.  Actually, it was really good.  This was something!  In recent years I have gotten away from drinking soda, I don't drink it very much at all any more. Mostly an occasional root beer float now and then, if its with good root beer.  I was glad I made an exception.

After we all had our ice cream I took a look around the store. They had all kind of nostalgic stuff, candy and toys from yesteryear, stuff that's hard to come by now days.  For what it all was, the prices really weren't that bad, I was a bit surprised.  They didn't have my all-time favorite candy bar, Almond Clusters.  Back then they were made by Peter Paul, a company since bought out by Hershey. I was amazed at their disappearance.  They were all over the place, easy to get when I went on my mission in 1972 but when I got back they were gone.  There was another candy bar I really liked that you can't get anymore, either, that they didn't have, Cherry Mash, made by Chase Candy Company.  I haven't seen either in stores for a long, long time.  Ah, well.  You can by them over the internet but they're expensive and then there's shipping, which makes them really expensive.  In any case, it was a fun store to hang out in for a while.  Brought back lots of memories.

Anyway, I tucked the two bottles away in my suitcase and brought them home with us.  When we got home I stuck them in the fridge where Himbeere saw them the next day and asked about them.  So I let him try one, expecting him to not like it.  Much to my surprise, he did like it.  Said it reminded him of root beer.  Different, but in a good way.  But if he liked it I knew I had a problem.  There might be competition for the last bottle.  Anyway, I left the other in the back of the fridge, waiting for the right time to enjoy it.  But then one morning when I got up there was a note waiting for me.  Himbeere was letting me know that he hadn't forgotten about it, that he was seeing it there in the fridge every day and being tempted.

So I decided that if I wanted it, I'd better drink it soon.  So I had it with lunch.  The same day I got the note.

It was good. And soda is best really cold.

It was really cool having Moosbeere find some and take us there so we could try some.  It was really cool getting some extra and bringing it home.  And it was really cool enjoying it then and again, several days later.  Unfortunately, its gone now.  However, Wikipedia says it was very popular in the 20th century (Ha! So long ago!) and still is in the inter-mountain west, and listed quite a few places in Utah and Idaho where it is still sold.  So, yes!  Next time we're out that way I'm going to be watching for it again!