Vintage roadside

[LizzieMaine]

One reason 7up was recommended for babies was that, until 1948, it contained a generous dose of lithium. Keeps the little buggers settled right down.

 

[Frunobulax]

One reason 7up was recommended for babies was that, until 1948, it contained a generous dose of lithium. Keeps the little buggers settled right down.

My mom used to give us a small glass of 7-Up when we had an upset tummy. Of course, that was way after lithium.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[2jakes]

One reason 7up was recommended for babies was that, until 1948, it contained a generous dose of lithium. Keeps the little buggers settled right down.

If you was to tell my ma about “lithium", she would’ve thought you were from another planet.
All that mattered was the size of the bottle which she would fill with milk for my baby sister when we went to the movies.
Enough supply to keep the little bugger quiet!

Texas size soda water!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The lithium was actually a big selling point -- in addition to settling down the baby, it made the drink a very popular hangover remedy and a weight-loss nostrum to boot. "Hospital Use" indeed.

There were quite a few products sold over the counter in the Era that were laced with lithium -- notably the popular fizzy laxative Sal Hepatica -- and they were widely abused until the FDA finally got around to banning the substance from consumer products.

 

[Fading Fast]

The lithium was actually a big selling point -- in addition to settling down the baby, it made the drink a very popular hangover remedy and a weight-loss nostrum to boot. "Hospital Use" indeed.

There were quite a few products sold over the counter in the Era that were laced with lithium -- notably the popular fizzy laxative Sal Hepatica -- and they were widely abused until the FDA finally got around to banning the substance from consumer products.

And Coca Cola, as is well known, had alcohol in it very early on (and stopped early too if memory serves) and cocaine that survived longer but also went away in the early 20th Century. A lot of sodas evolved from patent medicines, so probably not surprising. In my house, Ginger Ale was the medicinal soda of choice - that, along with Saltines, and you didn't need no doctor.

 

[2jakes]

Down South for hangovers....
Menudo!

This is potent stuff... not intended for a weak stomach.

 

[3fingers]

I really hate all those places that sell fake 7up.

Me too, but I'd almost tolerate it if I could get ham, eggs and coffee for a quarter.
An advertising thing you don't hear anymore would apply to the real 7up sign.
"Accept no substitutes!" It has been years since I've heard/seen that in an ad.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Substitution was a huge issue at soda fountains. Coca-Cola's Fountain Service Department used to send plainclothes agents into drugstores suspected of substituting, equipped with a rubber bag under their clothes, a catheter tube, and a little funnel sewn into their coat pocket. They'd go up to the fountain, order a Coke, and surrepetitiously pour a sample into the funnel, thru the tube, and into the bag. They'd take it back to the office, where it would be sent to Coke's chemical lab for analysis, and if it wasn't The Real Thing, they'd ring the hammer down on the druggist. No more privilege signs for that store!

There was good reason for druggists to try and chisel on the brand of cola they served -- Coke played hard ball with small fountain accounts, while at the same time giving big discounts on syrup to the big chains like Liggett's and Whelan's and Walgreen's. The independents were thus well disposed to listen to the slick-talking Pepsi salesman who'd cut them an under-the-table deal on a few jugs of syrup. They'd slip it into the Coke dispenser and figured no one would be the wiser -- until the C-Men showed up.

 

[2jakes]

La Cienega blvd

2016

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Wow...the Tale of the C-Men has given me a new respect for my favorite carbonated beverage (I'm partial to the Diet and Zero versions); those guys played hardball...a real Soda Mafia.

Rob

 

[Fading Fast]

What can be hard for non-Fedora Lounge members to know is how, in the first part of the 20th Century, the soda business was a drugstore, counter-served business to the point that, initially, Coke and other soda companies were concerned that "bottled" soda would undermine their counter-served businesses.

My dad, born in '24 and a life-long soda lover, was probably right on the cusp of both worlds as, when I was a kid in the '70s, he enjoyed sitting down at one of the few-that-were-left drug store soda counters, but was also quite happy to have a bottled soda. As a kid, to me, counter-served soda seemed odd - soda came from a bottle - but quirky fun in the way a future Fedora Lounger would like vintage things.

And, as always, pre-war movies, in particular, serve as a good time capsule as you'll regularly see scenes takes place in drug stores with soda counters in the same way you can see how incredibly important train travel was by the number of train scenes in old movie. I joke, but it's only somewhat of joke, that almost every movie from the '30s and '40s has a train scene in it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep. Asa Candler, president of The Coca-Cola Company during its formative years, was so opposed to bottling that he basically gave the rights away to a couple of guys named Thomas and Whitehead, convinced they would never make a go of it. To be fair, bottling around the turn of the century was considered a shady, dodgy business by just about everyone -- something for fly-by-night operators putting out cheap chemical concoctions that had a tendency to either spoil or explode in the bottles.

Our neighborhood drugstore had a very active fountain when I was a kid, and I'd stop in there every day on the way home from school for a mixed-in-the-glass Coke. To this day I prefer fountain Coke to the bottled kind.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

I guess I'm too young, or we never had them here in my neck of the woods... I've never had a true fountain drink.

Rob

 

[Fading Fast]

...Our neighborhood drugstore had a very active fountain when I was a kid, and I'd stop in there every day on the way home from school for a mixed-in-the-glass Coke. To this day I prefer fountain Coke to the bottled kind.

So do I and my girlfriend makes fun of me and my "fountain" sodas as I always get excited when I have the opportunity to have one.

I guess I'm too young, or we never had them here in my neck of the woods... I've never had a true fountain drink.

Rob

There was an old drugstore and an old candy shoppe (yup, spelled that way) in the town I grew up in - not "retro" establishments, but the real old shops still going - that still served soda that way, so I had them - not every day - but several times a year growing up.

To be honest, though, the real treat was the ice-cream "float -" basically, the fountain soda with a scoop or two of ice-cream in it. They kind of made a spectacle out of making it as (and there were a few ways to do it): they'd put some syrup and soda water and, maybe, ice-cream in a very tall glass that got wider toward the top, mix it a bit (dramatically with the long metal spoon clinking against the side of the glass), add some more of each and then top it off with the scoop of ice-cream - meanwhile, the thing would be fizzing over and you'd be excited as heck. They'd leave the spoon in, add in a straw, maybe a cherry on top and away you go. It was a big mess to eat, but fun as could be.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the reason a properly prepared fountain Coke is so good is because Coke had and still has rigid specifications for how it's to be served -- it has to be at a temperature of exactly 34 degrees, no more, no less. Not all fountains today enforce that as strictly as they could, but McDonald's does -- and I think a McDonald's Coke is the best Coke you're ever going to get. Say what you will about the Clown, but he does that right.

One thing I didn't like about the fountain experience as a kid, though, was the paper straws. They were cheap, skinny things that collapsed after the first few sucks, and left you with a taste of damp cellulose in your mouth before the glass was empty. Rarely could I get thru a single serving without going thru two or three straws. I see paper straws making a comeback now, and I'll be interested to see if this flaw has been corrected.

 

[Fading Fast]

I think the reason a properly prepared fountain Coke is so good is because Coke had and still has rigid specifications for how it's to be served -- it has to be at a temperature of exactly 34 degrees, no more, no less. Not all fountains today enforce that as strictly as they could, but McDonald's does -- and I think a McDonald's Coke is the best Coke you're ever going to get. Say what you will about the Clown, but he does that right.

One thing I didn't like about the fountain experience as a kid, though, was the paper straws. They were cheap, skinny things that collapsed after the first few sucks, and left you with a taste of damp cellulose in your mouth before the glass was empty. Rarely could I get thru a single serving without going thru two or three straws. I see paper straws making a comeback now, and I'll be interested to see if this flaw has been corrected.

I don't remember paper straws being an issue with the fountain drinks specifically (I would have said the fountain shops in my town used plastic ones, but can't swear to it), but I do remember the paper ones fell apart - they were terrible. They are making a comeback because of the anti-plastics movement (that is a fact, I am not saying more, but really want to). Like you, I hope the new generation of paper straws is better than those old ones.

 

[2jakes]

I guess I'm too young, or we never had them here in my neck of the woods... I've never had a true fountain drink.

Rob

Rob, the fountain drinks did not come close in taste to the chilled glass bottle
of Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, Royal Crown or 7UP for example.
I'm talking about '50s soda water in glass bottles in comparison to fountain drinks which
were available everywhere in my neck of
the woods.

Fountain drinks were mixed at the fountain
and the soda jerk is so appropriate a name because they did a such a poor job at mixing
the syrup and carbonated water.


Glass bottle sodas were best because the
bottle cap with cork inside kept the carbonation and taste.
Aluminum soda cans are a joke. They tend to go flat and will only drink it as a last resort.

 

[Haversack]

I remember my dad talking about the customization of your drink you could get at a soda fountain. Cherry cola, lemon cola, chocolate cola, etc. This was brought about by the local, Northern California soda company, Shasta Beverage doing a large advertising push in the mid-1960s that emphasized all their varieties of sodas which approximated a lot of the soda fountain specialties. And that led to a discussion of hash-house slang…


‘Stretch one and let it bleed’ - A large cherry Coke.

‘High and dry’ - A sandwich with no butter, mustard, not mayonnaise.

’86’ - ‘we’re out of it’ and ‘throw the bum out!’.

‘Vanilla!’ - ‘Come look at the cute girl’.

‘Burn one’ - A hamburger.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A popular fountain drink of the Era was the "suicide," made with a squirt of every kind of syrup offered. We have a variation of this at our fountain for those who ask for it, but a mix of Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, root beer, lemonade, and unsweetened ice tea is not exactly ambrosia.

"Cut 'em deep and let 'em bleed" was stage slang for "Go out there and put on a show that'll leave them dead in their seats."

 

[2jakes]

For headaches and jumpy nerves.
Bang!

Have a fountain coke!

If Homer says it's good for vim & vigor....
then it's true!


Polo knows why I'm a grinnin'!