Soda Jerk

When we still lived in the Heights, one of the jobs I remember my brother having was as a soda jerk working at the Duggan Pharmacy. It was located in the building at the corner of 19^th and Ashland St., next to the Heights Hospital. The term was used to refer to the person who operated the soda fountain in the drugstore.

I remember we had a refrigerator in our house, but it was very small compared to those most people have today. It had only one door and then a small section at the top part with a metal door where the ice trays would sit for making ice cubes. There was not much room for other things. If your family was lucky enough to have meat with a meal, it would have to be fresh from the grocery store or from a can. No Blue Bell ice cream in the freezer or ice cream at home ever. We did not even have ice cream trucks selling ice cream bars in the neighborhood. There were no canned drinks back then and bottled sodas were not something you would find at our house.

The drugstore back then was the only place you could get a prescription filled or find over-the-counter medicines or things for minor wounds. Some of the drugstores had a soda fountain where drinks were made by mixing flavored syrup and carbonated water. They could also add malt powder and add a few scoops of ice cream. That would be served in a tall glass with a long-handled spoon and a drink straw. The ice cream was in very large containers kept in the freezer compartment that was the lower part of the serving counter with an upper glass window front where you could see the ice cream. You could watch him scoop the ice cream out for each flavor.

I don’t remember how long Maurice worked there, but I remember how excited I was to see him dressed in a white shirt and white hat and to know I was getting a treat because he was working there. I am guessing it was 1950 to 1952 at the latest because we moved from the Heights at Thanksgiving 1952. I remember he also worked at the grocery store at another corner of the same intersection.

We did not know what being rich was like, but we did not think of us as being “poor”. We did not have much, but we were no different than our neighbors or the kids we went to school or church with. The TV had not been invented or at least we did not know one existed. The movies at the Heights Theater were in black and white and the newsreels were mostly about things involving wars. Most of the streets in the Heights back then were not paved so you did not hear about car wrecks.

Most people alive today do not have memories like that. Either they are too young to have experienced days like that or maybe they have difficulties remembering much these days. It was a simpler time when people had relationships with no pretense of being special or viewing themselves as victims. You learned that you were in charge of what your life would become and how you would choose to deal with the good and bad events in your life.

The best advice I remember my Mom giving me is, “Nobody owes you anything, what are you going to do to make it better?” That my friend is what love sounds like.