Growing up, my small town of 1700 people had a K-12 school, a movie theater, a hospital, a newspaper, a bank, a dairy, five dress shops, five car dealerships, four hardware stores and three grocery stores, two cafés and two drugstores with soda fountains.
Both fountains served ‘pop’ and ‘coke’ but it was Curtis Drug where I was allowed to perch my preteen self on a stool after school, perhaps because my Mom some times played bridge with Mrs. Curtis.
Above the fountain was a scruffy stuffed albino deer bagged by Mr. Curtis, gruesome by city standards but not surprise, then or now, in the north-woods towns of Minnesota.
A coke was a dime, fifteen cents with a syrup. This was the real Real Coke, sweetened with cane sugar. I was partial to cherry syrup until discovering vanilla. The glasses were small by today’s megamall measure. Ice came crushed or cubed; both dripped condensation onto the metal-edged counter.
Feeling oh-so-sophisticated, I’d sip the icy sweetness through a straw, lifting up to grin at a school friend on the next stool as we wordlessly absorbed the big-kid talk from high schoolers a few stools away.
Today, the small town has 1100 people. The theater, the hospital, the newspaper, three banks and even one drugstore remain, even if the dairy, the dress shops, the car dealerships, two hardware stores, two groceries, the cafés and most sadly, the soda fountains, do not.
VANILLA BROWNIES
saucepan brownies;
moist and fudgy in the center,
chewy on the edges
Oven time: 30 – 40 minutes
Make 16 bars
- 1 cup sugar
- 5 inch length of vanilla bean
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 3-1/2 - 4 ounces bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate, in pieces
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup chopped walnuts, preferably toasted (optional)
- Powdered sugar
Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a food processor, whiz the sugar and vanilla bean for several minutes until the vanilla is in tiny flecks.
Meanwhile, melt the butter over low heat in a large saucepan. Add the chocolate and stir until melted. Whisk in the vanilla and eggs, then the sugar mixture, salt, flour and nuts.
Transfer the batter to a well-greased 8x8 cake pan and smooth the surface. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool and cut into 16 squares. If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
PERSONAL NOTE This column was written during the winter of 2006. During a visit home that summer, much to my surprise, the albino deer from Curtis Drug showed up on a float in the 4th of July parade! And so now I have a photo as well as a mind memory. If only, if only, the drugstore still had the soda fountain!
Need a Chocolate Fix?
Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences.
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Your Comments:
During the time we lived there, the store's original owners retired and the new owners decided to close the soda fountain. My son still says I made him overdose on "chocolate sodas" because I took him in every day during the last week they were in business, and kept saying, "I want you to remember this, this is a piece of history." He was 7 or 8 years old then. My favorites beside the cherry cokes, were lime cokes!
Great post! Memoir-esque articles are tremendously difficult to get right. They tend to be boring and self-centered -- "grilled cheese" posts. But when they're pulled off, as you did here, they're fascinating and broadly appealing.
I know this because I keep trying and fail more often than I succeed.{wry grin}