May 12, 2011

Soda fountain memories
Dozens of readers share stories of finding sundaes, milkshakes and even true love

Few memories are sweeter for Carol Sherman than time spent at the soda fountain at Collins Corner Store in Berwick.

Few memories are sweeter for Carol Sherman than time spent at the soda fountain at Collins Corner Store in Berwick.

Sherman was one of dozens of readers who had visions of cherry Cokes, banana splits and ice cream floats dancing in their heads as they answered our call for memories of old-time soda fountains. Our interest was sparked when we learned America on Wheels museum in Allentown was installing a 1953 soda fountain in its Hub Cap Cafe.

For Carol, there was something even more appealing than sundaes and ice cream sodas at Collins, the Columbia County store owned by Tony Collins. There was Larry Sherman, "a cute, quiet, blonde guy working behind the counter."

Larry began working at the store at age 14. Tony, "a kind man who quietly helped people in need," offered Larry a job shortly after he had lost his father. Having lost her mother when she was only 10, Carol could relate. She was thrilled when Tony offered her a job when she was 16.

"Working in the hottest corner store in town with the cute blonde guy. What more could I ask for?" she says. The two ended up being a match as perfect as vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce. Carol and Larry were married six years later. Married 45 years, they now reside in Krumsville, Berks County, but lived in Berwick most of their lives.

Readers said there was something magical about soda fountains, which were prevalent during the 1950s and 1960s but have nearly disappeared. As illustrated in TV sitcom "Happy Days," they were places to hang out with other teens. And they attracted families — parents or grandparents stopped for a special treat and kids got their sugar fix on the way home from school.

Soda fountains jogged memories, from their red swivel stools to heavenly treats such as the CMP sundae (chocolate, marshmallow and peanut).

"Ah, I remember CMPs, lime phosphates, real cherry Cokes, chocolate and vanilla ice cream sodas, dusty roads and more," says Charlie Erb of South Whitehall, whose favorite spot was an old drug store on Main Street in Kutztown, where he grew up. In his mind, he can still see its red-and-chrome stools and checkered floor.

"Everything there was made fresh, right before your eyes and that was part of the charm," Erb says.

Whenever his uncle had to pick up something at the drug store, he'd take Charlie along and treat him to an ice cream soda or a lime phosphate (strong soda mixed with very strong lime flavoring). "I was a happy kid after that," he says.

Kathy Dougherty of Macungie remembers the soda fountain at M & N Drugstore, a few doors down from the Roxy Theatre in Northampton, as one of several favorite stops for her family. On Saturdays, her grandfather would take her and her sister or friends to a movie followed by a stop at M & N for a sundae, milkshake, root beer float or ice cream cone.

"The really big highlight was a metal upside-down cone dish with the small stick pretzels in it. We had fun stirring the ice cream with those pretzels," she says.

She also remembers sitting at the long soda fountain facing large windows at the Lehigh Valley Dairy on MacArthur Road in Whitehall, where her dad, then Whitehall High's band director, took her to celebrate after a concert. Other favorite stops were Whelan's Drug Store at Center Square in Allentown, where she and her mom would take a shopping break, Bause's Drugstore on MacArthur Road, a short distance from the Lehigh Valley Dairy, and Peter's Milk Bar on Pershing Boulevard in Whitehall.

Also not far from the dairy was Mitchell's Cut Rate at Sixth and Washington streets in Allentown, where Lynn Dotter Weaver, now of Germansville, and her friends stopped for a cherry Coke after studying at the North Branch of the Allentown Public Library. "We gladly paid a nickel for our cherry cokes," Weaver says.

Soda fountains lined Allentown's Hamilton Street, as several readers recalled. While students at Allen High School, Dolores Rehrig and her pals got to know them all — Beck's Ice Cream Bar, where cheaper prices made it a teen hangout, Candyland, a candy store with a soda fountain near 10th and Hamilton, and Dolly Madison near 10th Street, which was "owned by two sisters who made their own hot fudge that they kept in a Thermos. It was never duplicated," says Rehrig of Allentown. "Wish I could buy one of those hot fudge sundaes today."

The hot fudge sauce "was served in tiny glass mugs, which allowed you to pour it over your own sundae topped with so many choices," says Carol Stephens of Center Valley. She and her husband Stan, both chocoholics, visited Dolly Madison after movies, on dates and later with their children. It closed before they could take their grandchildren.

Barbara Cole of Emmaus loved Dolly Madison's white marble table tops and "chocolate Dutch shoes that melted on the roof of your mouth." She also liked spending afternoons at Woolworth's on Hamilton Street and at Cedar Crest Plaza, "where they served sundaes in tulip glasses and Cokes in real Coke glasses." But her favorite remains The Ritz at the Allentown Fairgrounds, where she "still can get ice cream to go or to eat there in one of its art-deco wooden booths."

Betty Pollitt of Allentown, another regular at Candyland, remembers a sundae it become known for — The Brooklyn Bridge, made with sugar biscuits, different flavored ice creams and toppings and big enough to serve four or more people.

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