Date: Sat, 1 Apr 1995 08:44:56 -0600 From: Anne Baldwin Subject: Re: boston coolers >Re Rootbeer and ice cream: > > We called that drink a purple cow In Chicago in the late 40s and early 50s a mixture of vanilla ice cream and root beer was called a black cow. Ice cream with grape soda was called a purple cow. I don't recall any name for ice cream and gingere ale. I believe we might have called it an ice cream float. An ice cream soda was a mixture of ice cream, seltzer water and a chocolate or fruit syrup. We made black cows at home from store bought ingredients, but I never had an ice cream soda except in ice cream parlors or soda fountains which, in those days, could be found in any drugstore, usually near the entrance. My favorite ice cream sodas were strawberry because for some reason the syrup contained pieces of mashed strawberry. They sometimes clogged the straw, but when you sucked hard enough you'd be rewarded with a little morse of pure strawberry, to be washed down by the flood of soda that followed. ================================================= Robert F. Baldwin, 515/284-8920 Freelance Articles Member, ASJA =================================================