slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

By Paul Kaplan; New York, NY...from Reminisce Magazine

I often recall my grandmother talking about the local luncheonettes in New York. Some were candy stores; others, soda and ice cream shops or drugstores with a counter and soda jerks. Sadly, few are left.

But I recently discovered one right around the corner from my apartment in Manhattan called Lexington Candy Shop. Little has changed here since 1925. Seated at the counter, patrons sip egg creams and lime rickeys. Soda jerks in white uniforms make Coca-Cola with seltzer and a shot of pumped cola syrups...just how you'd picture a true classic cola. On the back counter sits a 1940 Hamilton Beach milk shake mixer next to the 1948 coffee urns.

According to the pricing sheet from the early '40s h*****g on the wall (with a WWII-era Office of Price Administration seal), milk shakes were 20 cents, whereas sliced turkey was 65 cents.

As I leave this hideaway and enter the hurried streets of Manhattan, I smile at a place where time seems to stand still amid an ever-changing city...and picture my grandmother and her friends.

MarvinSussman

That's the way I remember it. As a teen in 1940, I made $0.40 per hour.

kankune Loc: Iowa

You painted a beautiful picture. I enjoyed it. Hadn't thought about the little soda shop that use to be in my home town in a long time. Thx

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Marvin or Kankune: Can either of you remind me of what a 'lime rickey' is I can't recall, or if I ever even knew.

BTW, Marvin, my first real job (in the late 50s) that resulted in a steady paycheck was as a busboy, for 50 cents an hour.

Weewillynobeerspilly Loc: North central Texas

Well slatt, we have a place close that still serves oldy but good stuff like the old soda shops, i have had a lime rickey on one visit...best i can describe it would be to say it's like a Sonic cherry limeade without the cherry side....it was OK, but it's been strawberry malts from then on

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Does your malt shop have a BYOB policy to strengthen that lime rickey

Weewillynobeerspilly Loc: North central Texas

I thought they invented the hip flask so one need not ask such questions. .....better to beg forgiveness than ask permission

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Ever the gentleman, eh, Willy

Nutter Loc: Fly Over Zone

My younger days I grew up in a small North Central Iowa town. Saturday night was bath night, and after that I received a dime and headed to the soda shop for a butterscotch ice cream cone at Heiney's.
My favorite treat in those days was a bottle of R C Cola with salted peanuts from the penny nut (gumball) machine .

Dinty

I can remember you could get all the root beer you could drink for a nickle. This was in Rolfe, Iowa, oh yes, and every glass you drank, it got stronger.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Dinty, you and Nutter need to hook up at a soda shop in Iowa and have a few root beers together

kankune Loc: Iowa

Hey Ditty. Rolfe?? Algona here. Are there any soda shops left in this area. I'd love to find one.....

boatbob2

When I was At Fort Sill,Oklahoma,1955,I had a buddy,Richard Breare,who used to describe having a FRAPPE,In Boston,The closest he could describe it was,an ice cream soda,without the ice cream....

Dinty

hey kankune, I was born in Algona. Living in the Sanction State of Calexico now. Sure wish I could afford to leave.

kankune Loc: Iowa

Oh my goodness, such a small world! I was down in Texas for 3 years. Lovely state, but becoming over run by i******s.(And I lived further up north in Texas even) it's cold and snowy back up here, but really glad I came back. Embracing my family and my zip code. Maybe down the road you can find your way back here. Lot worse places to be right now then our little ole hometown. : )