Soda, Ice Cream, and Courting Rituals During Prohibition

Ice cream soda, recipes galore below

I found a 1928 image of the African American owned and operated Fennell's Greater Pharmacy at Druid Hill Avenue and Biddle Street in Baltimore. Prohibition period pharmacies commonly sold medicines along with candies and light refreshments including non-alcoholic drinks like carbonated ice cream sodas. Fennell’s, which one 1920s source called “Baltimore’s biggest and best colored drug store,” had a soda fountain where one could purchase an ice cream soda a sandwich and perhaps a slice of apple pie. The growth and popularity of the drugstore soda fountain can be traced to the development of carbon dioxide in tanks which made carbonated drinks available in the early 1900s and to the start of prohibition in 1919. Thereafter taking a date out to a pharmacy for an ice cream soda and sandwich became a courting ritual. During segregation Fennell’s dispensed medications with dignity to customers of all ethnicity and it’s soda fountain provided a safe space for young African Americans courting on a hot August evening to get to know each other over a light refreshment. Here are some soda fountain recipes from the 1920s and 30s

Prohibition Era Soda Fountain Recipes: http://www.masterstech-home.com/The_Kitchen/recipes/Reminiscent_Recipes/SodaFountainRecipes.html