[Among the essays written for Doc Ross' English class, the meditation on soda fountains has turned up. You can decide how much is tongue-in-cheek, how much is true to the places we knew, especially Dobkins and Schoelles Pharmacies]

[1957] Each century and culture has its unofficial centers of knowledge. London had its coffee houses and France its salons. But, you say, if the first statement  is true, where is the cultural center of Twentieth  Century America?

Today just as in previous decades  knowledge seeks and finds its own outlets among the people. Throughout the U.S. American counterparts to the London coffee house have been rapidly increasing,  quietly, slowly, humbly. Almost every town from the big metropolis

to the growing suburban tract to the crossroads hamlet has at least one such institution. Each place has a different name and a distinct patronage. The name may be Pop's, Ray's, or something symbolic like The Big Scoop, but they are the same the country round.

It is the American soda fountain that has become the meeting place for potential intellectual greats of the Twentieth Century. In the small college town or on the campus long row of stools before the play host to innumerable geniuses of letters, science, and business.

It is over brimming ice cream sodas and thru two sets of straws that the nations youthful intellects create the germs of tomorrow's new developments. Here too the beginnings of a most important American institution often take place. The seltzer impregnated glass of ice cream and syrup often produce the first bond,, leading to matrimony.

Is there a controversial subject of current interest--all pertinent discussion is to be heard in any of the many fountains. In front of a fountain established as part of a drugstore may be found a contingent of rather ederly gentlemen one of which is usually found to be the owner. They discuss objectively and in great detail the current news about town or perhaps the state of world affairs. Each offers his philosophy and discusses his compatriots' contributions. Even the big department stores have recognized the importance of catering to the intellectual elements of society. On the basement floor are found soda fountains with the usual food fair. Around these counters crowd the busy female intelligentsia of the nation. At times the discussion is in the line of the fine arts, and the latest three dimensionals from abroad are carefully criticized and final analyses are made.

So it is that the exchange of ideas and the formation of new theories takes place in the great nation of the common man. It is certainly in keeping with the democratic traditions of the state that such an institution as the soda fountain should be the vehicle for modern thought, for with its free and inclusive atmosphere it excludes no one or his opinions--not even the lowest most ignorant dolt in the land.