Where are they?

When I was growing up, there were ice cream parlors and drug stores with a soda fountain. We could get plain or flavored cokes, (cherry, chocolate, lemon) a malted milk, a banana split, an ice cream sundae or various flavored sodas. My preference was a chocolate soda. Ice cream was put in a tall glass along with flavored syrup of one's choice, soda water was dispensed from a spigot on the fountain, and after it foamed up over the top of the glass another scoop of ice cream was added. Something like a root beer float (which you can still get at an A & W or make at home). Sometimes they even served light sandwiches, coffee and tea. There were a couple of ice cream parlors in La Crosse, the one I liked best had lots of green marble, booths with green marble tables with fancy lamps at one end of each booth, also little ice cream tables and chairs. Their own variety of chocolate candy was artfully shown in a display case, and could be purchased one piece or boxed to order.

Nowadays, drug stores like CVS, Walgreens, etc. are more like convenience stores, or pharmacies are located in grocery stores; not a soda fountain in sight. There was a Swensons on Maryland Parkway that we used to frequent when I lived on Dorothy St., near UNLV, all the grandkids liked to go there. The old MGM/Bally's used to have a Swenson's that was like the old ice cream parlors of my memory, with all the amenities that I remember from my childhood. When cousins Betty and Carol used to come to visit every year, we made it a point to have lunch at Swensons at least once. Since then, JoAnn and I discovered a small Swensons, with a soda fountain, in the shopping center at the corner of Windmill and Pecos. We went there a few times for a soda, however that Swensons has been gone a few years now too.

Where have the ice cream parlors and drug stores with soda fountains gone? We've lost a wonderful piece of our past culture when they disappeared.