Sam’s and Bluestones Local Soda Fountains
Sam’s was located a half block from our home on the corner of Sarah and South 28 th Street. The building is still there. I saw it on a street view on google maps. In the front on Sarah Street was a neat soda fountain. You could get real milkshakes, made right in front of your eyes with vanilla ice cream, milk and vanilla. This has always been my favorite. I guess even at 4 years old I was a purist as far as ice cream was concerned. It is still my very favorite almost 60 years later. Dad would take me and my bother, Ken there. His favorite as I recall was a cherry coke. In the back of the store was a billard room or as the locals called it the, “pool room”. Sam’s was always a favorite of ours. It was so close and neat to visit.
Another favorite was Bluestone’s Pharmacy . They had neat coffee ice cream, which I acquired a taste for in my late teens. They made homemade ice cream. It was extremely good. Their milk shakes could be malt. They were good. But I liked the straight vanilla shake the best. This building, I think, is still there. It’s located in the 2600 block of East Carson Street. We would get many Rx there. Little did I know when my mom sent me to buy her cigarettes that I was contributing to her lung cancer, but I was young and didn’t know any better.
Tags: Bluestones, milkshakes, Sam's, soda fountains, South Side Memories
April 10th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
I was born and raised in the South Side and we used to go to Bluestones or T &T Hardware to buy a baseball to take with us to the Basin. We constantly lost them down the “sores” or sewers so we would have to put our money together to get a baseball and then buy lunch at Cupka’s to take with us up to the Basin. I could not have picked a better place to grow-up….