SLURPING THROUGH
THE UPPER MIDWEST
My son Ted was interested in ice cream. One summer he worked the night shift at Pierre’s, loading ice cream onto trucks. One summer he worked at East Coast Custard on Mayfield Road, making shakes.
He owned a shake mixer and concocted date shakes at home, using date crystals from California. He had a following (his mother).
After his junior year of high school, Ted and I drove through the Upper Midwest, hitting A&Ws and assorted other chazerai shops, while looking at colleges . (He wound up at Brandeis. Oops.)
We rode the amphibious Ducks in The Dells, Wisconsin, and saw The House on the Rock, which Teddy described as an “affront to Frank Lloyd Wright.” Ted was good with words, even back in high school.
We visited the mustard museum in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. Then we hit the A&W, where Ted asked for a “mama burger, papa burger and a rooty tooty.” He knew that terminology from a junk-food guide.
That trip to the Upper Midwest was one of my favorites — l0oking for A&Ws and colleges with my son.
Root beer! (I’m still good for a Diet Hank’s or Diet IBC at Tommy’s in Cleveland.)
—
“Root beer,” to rhyme with “put beer.” That’s how we say it here.
9 comments
My cousin Elan who lives in Israel always buys lots of root beer when he comes to the US since he can’t get it in Israel.
Where is “House on the Rock?”
Spring Green, Wisconsin
So I take it that this was a real FLW house. So why would it be an”affront?”
The Japanese think root beer tastes like medicine; there are maybe three vending machines selling the stuff in the whole of Tokyo, though you can find it in stores that specialize in “exotic” food and drink. Okinawa is a big exception: A&Ws everywhere. I rarely drink the real thing — it puts me in a sugar coma.
To Ken G.
The House on the Rock is not a FLW house. Not by a long shot.
It’s in holy FLW territory. For shame!….
Wow, that’s a great illustration. Just realized what it was.
Down here in western North Carolina, there’s root beer, Dr. Pepper, Coke et al, but they’re NOT pops – they’re all called sodas. New on the market is a superr-charged soda called Jolt; quite the caffeine kick.
Dave
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