Home Town Hot Spots

I think everyone has a favorite spot that you used to hang out at. My brother used to think he was a pool shark, which from tales told he ended up being. I don’t know if Mother ever knew he hung out at the pool hall or not.
Joan and I and a lot of our friends hung out at the Soda Shoppe. If memory serves me right, I think my mom told me that it used to be called the Chocolate Shoppe. They had a ice cream fountain and booths that we sat and laughed and gossiped and had French fries with our cokes. Joan always put peanuts in her bottle of Coke. That never caught on with me. Personally my favorites were ice cream sodas. They were scoops of ice cream with the same flavor of syrup. So if you ordered a chocolate ice cream soda, you got chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup with seltzer water. Another one of my favorites were phosphates. A phosphate was just flavored water, but they were very pretty. I used to order a cherry phosphate, it was just as good as it was pretty with lots of bubbles.
Years ago, people used to frequent the soda shoppes for energy. Folks just knew that they felt more energized after they had had a soda so they frequented the soda shops for more. The drinks were “pepped” up with cocaine and caffeine. So to all my children, grand children, great grandchildren, your Grandma Lu like cocaine in her drinks! I do know this, Mom would tell my grandpa not to give me cokes. He liked his small bottles of cokes, and he would share with me occasionally. The smile he gave me when he did that was rare, and it was not a big one, but it was there.
When I heard that the Soda Shoppe was gone, it gave me an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach. How can I go home without the Soda Shoppe?
There is another spot or two that I will write about in future posts. Thank goodness for memories.