The drugstore cherry coke

What could be better than a drugstore cherry coke? Certainly not the sweet syrupy stuff in bottles now.

Reynolds Drug Store in my hometown served the best cherry cokes--as I remember them they had a slight bite. They were served in a glass which said Coke on it. You had to pull your straw out of a long glass cylinder. Sitting on the vinyl seats sipping a cherry coke was the best experience of the 50's. I will say that a Coke float comes a close second to being best.

Reynolds which was next door to where my mother worked always had several defining smells: at the front where the cosmetics were sold there was the wonderful perfume smell. As one walked to the back where the prescriptions were picked up, the smell began to be medicinal. The Reynolds had several antique shelves of medicines closeted behind glass doors which always made the medicines more mysterious and unusual.

At the front of the store were the magazine racks and the racks which held comic books (remember them?). These were the days before magazine covers were x rated. I always enjoyed seeing all the different titles from venues I never entered. The men's magazines were mostly about hunting and fishing not naked women. The women's magazines were mostly about keeping the home, not about how to satisfy one's partner. And then there were those about travel, home design, etc. One section I always frequented were the movie magazines--I always managed to buy at least one a month after I finished my coke. More about that collection later. Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds for the pleasure you gave a small town girl.