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54
summer
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fal l
beside grownups from across the street who came in on a break. I still
remember one of the twins shaking his head as he drew a glass of plain
soda water for a man who worked at the service station, saying, “You’re
the only person I know who drinks plain soda water. That’s 5¢.” That
did not sound like much fun to me, but of course he was decades ahead
of his time given all the seltzer sold now.
Going For a Suicide
As we grew older we moved from the candy racks to the fountain,
and, as I said, they were ready for us. At the low end of the scale, there
were nickel Cokes, a decent sized drink for the money really; then of
course the bigger glasses at 10¢, and, you could, at that exalted level,
choose some embellishment. There were maybe half a dozen chrome
spigots lined up on the other side of the counter and an adventurous
young man might order a cherry, or lemon Coke, and watch Elmer squirt
in a shot of coke syrup, a quick zip of lemon, then the soda water.
But no matter what the level of expenditure, the patron received
a straw with its paper wrapper and hence the chance at a free drink!
Against the back wall, sticking out three or four inches from the big
mirror at about eye level, was a foot-wide wooden disk, with a deep
walnut varnish. There were maybe eight holes in the wheel of varying
sizes, each marked with the name of a drink: 5¢ Coke, 10¢ Coke, and
one “Suicide.” Of course the 5¢ hole was larger than the 10¢ hole and
the Suicide. It seemed years of practice and gauging of the prevailing
winds were required, not to mention blind luck.
One needed to properly, and with great accuracy and panache, tear
off one end of the straw’s wrapper and gently wet and twist the other
end to a point – carefully, carefully, for if you got it too wet it tore open
and often ruined the wrapper – only one per drink. Properly fashioned,
you aimed at one of the holes on the wheel, and, leaning but without
leaving your stool, blew into the straw, shooting the wrapper at the prize
targets on the wheel five feet away. If you correctly judged the currents,
angle of descent, if you waited to be sure no one was opening or closing
the door into the fountain which would send a draught blowing your
missile far off course, and if you were experienced and unusually
fortunate, you might coax your wrapper to land and lodge in one of the
holes, in which case you were awarded a free drink as designated beneath
the hole. I tried for years with no success; in fact, I only recall seeing one
person win a drink, an 8
th
-grader, Tote Borgatello, who hit a winner one
afternoon, a Suicide.
The Only World We Knew
By the time I was in 7th grade I had a bit more of a weekly
allowance and once in a while I could afford a 10¢ drink. I do not
recall when I first tried a Suicide, but it was clearly the most esoteric
selection available, the wildest thing you could order, and the first time I
I
only recall seeing one
person win a drink, an
8th-grader, Tote Borgatello, who hit
a winner one afternoon, a Suicide.
T
here were maybe
half a dozen chrome
spigots lined up on the other
side of the counter and an
adventurous young man might
order a cherry, or lemon Coke,
and watch Elmer squirt in a shot
of coke syrup, a quick zip of
lemon, then the soda water.
M M
ontecito
emories