I do remember how fast our smiles went to frowns when the pharmacist made out chery cokes. I don't remember how long its been since I saw a drug store fountain. Yvonne we were in a major southern city, 'Atlanta' who had one of the largest and busiest airports in the world, so we got modern fairly soon. We also had one of the largest most popular restaurants, who several leaders visited the restaurant.
We had an independent soda fountain in our town, owned by neighbors. They were terrific to us kids. Opened up the back room, put in a juke box that didn't cost us to play. Also, some booths where we could chat or do homework and a center floor where some kids loved to dance. Small town folks who all knew each other, and we got along just fine. Most of our students went on to higher education after graduation from a great public school. I got a superb counselor who encouraged me to do lots of research and learn all I could on my own. Best advice ever.
Blue Island, IL had a drugstore /soda fountain and made Vanilla/Chocolates I drank a million of them. We had a White Castle and occasionally the local paper had coupons for five "sliders" for 25 cents. We had an A&W with great root beers in frosted mugs and great double cheeseburgers. There was a Dog & Suds. We had a food truck named Wee Willies Weenie Wagon that came in the summertime that made hotdogs Chicago style and to this day none have ever been better. We had The Campus Grille across the street from the junior/senior level high school much like the TV show Happy Days.
Wow, that is a LOT of places, @Steven Stanick ! I grew up in a small town, and we really did not have any kind of an actual soda fountain, but I remember the Greyhound Bus station had a little food bar where you could buy hamburgers and pop and milkshakes. It was basically for travelers, but a lot of the local people would go there for a quick and delicious burger when they wee out shopping. Later, we had a drive-in theater (it was called the Motor Movie), and they had a hot dog stand inside, with popcorn and the usual movie treats. There was also an A&W drive in , and they had the very best root beer and delicious hamburgers. On weekends they stayed open late, so people who had been to the Motor Movie could stop for a burger and root beer afterwards.
Yep, root beer was the king in Indiana. We had the Dog n Suds, A&W for root beer and places like the Parkeat, The Pole, and other drive-in hangouts for everything else. A root beer and a tenderloin pork sandwich and you were in Hoosier Heaven.