Pink And White

Back in the '50s, Perez Prado put out a popular song called "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White."  I was reminded of it on a trip to town yesterday, although the fruits were wrong.  Around what seemed like every curve in the road there were pink and white plum trees in full blossom.  As they are in my yard, plums are the first to bloom in this area.  For an added punch of color, acacia trees dripped their bright yellow flowers and there were salmon-colored flowering quince.  It would be difficult to say which is more beautiful, the drive in spring or the reds and golds of fall.  The delicate plum trees also made me think of frothy ice cream sodas.

Back in my day, drug stores were not the diverse stores they are now and just sold drugs (the good kind), but almost all had a soda fountain.  The drug store in my home town (I think it was a Rexall, but could be wrong) also fixed sandwiches and light meals.  Red, who manned the fountain and griddle known as a flat top, always with a cigarette dangling from his lips and a paper hat on his head, was a whiz at grilled cheese or tuna fish sandwiches for lunch or open-face hot beef sandwiches with gravy in the evening.  Best of all were the sodas, made from scratch with various syrups and carbonated water.  My mother always ordered a Black Cow with root beer, chocolate syrup, and vanilla ice cream, and my favorite was a crushed pineapple soda with strawberry ice cream, hence the flashback to the pink and white plums.

As long as I'm speaking of sodas, I should mention my Aunt Ruth.  I had two aunts on my mother's side (and many more on my dad's).  Aunt Hilda was tall and spare, Aunt Ruth was a pudgy dumpling.  I spent a lot of time with both of them as neither had children of their own and I suppose I was the rent-a-kid in the family.  Aunt Hilda had the next best thing to a farm.  Aunt Ruth liked to eat.  Her idea of a soda was a pint of ice cream (each) and a whole bottle of 7-Up (each). "Don't tell your mother."

It's a good thing it is a beautiful drive into town as I'm going to have to go again today.  A stop I should have made and didn't was at the vet's office for Bessie's heart worm medication.  They don't stock it on hand to be picked up at will.  One has to call it in to be picked up late the next afternoon.  I get a six-month supply at a time and remembered to call, but whizzed right by yesterday since it's not in my regular routine.  Aargh.  While I'm down there, I might stop in for a root beer float, the next best thing to a soda.