SODAS I HAVE LOVED AND BIG BAND MUSIC

I was thinking the other day about different sodas I really liked, which are no longer available, or which I just can’t find. Foremost on the list was one made in my home town (I think) called Almond Smash. I’m not sure when they stopped making it, sometime back in the 70s, perhaps, but I loved it! It was red, and despite the almond in the name, tasted, at least to me, more like Maraschino cherries. It went beautifully with salted peanuts, and I have very fond memories of that combination, imbibed standing up at the counter, after our high school play rehearsals. We were exhausted, psyched up, and needed food, drink and wind down time. So we got a credit at the “pop stand” which sold drinks and snacky things (not candy bars) and donated the profits to the Boy Scout troop at our school. Whenever I think of Almond Smash, I think of those relaxed late (for us) evening sessions in the otherwise empty school building, with our director (also our librarian) our prompter (one of my favorite teachers) and the cast, cutting up, and thoroughly enjoying our treats. Somehow, it always felt just the slightest bit illicit, though it wasn’t, in the least. I wish someone would find, then buy that formula, and start production again, just so I can have an Almond Smash!

I am currently ISO a really *good* cream soda, too. Again, something I love, and I think they might still be around …but since neither Coke nor Pepsi have the good sense to produce one, I have to really *hunt*.

Old treats bring to mind …old music (well, not exactly *old*, but certainly from a different era. I happen to thoroughly enjoy Big Band music …Glenn Miller, Woody Herman, and all the other “orchestras” that held firm sway during the 40s. My stepfather had some lovely 78 records, which is how I, as a little girl, got to know and appreciate Glenn Miller and others. I’m delighted to find that music services such as Rhapsody (love that service!) have them available, too, because I would hate to think that such music would fade away completely. Every time I hear music like that, I can’t help but think of some of the old movies I saw as a child, (especially the black and white WWII movies that were so popular on late night TV during the 60s), and one New Year’s Eve, when I was allowed, perhaps for the first time, to sit up until the ball dropped in Times Square. While waiting, and afterward, too, they showed several parties at some of the fine restaurants and clubs …and they seemed *so* elegant, to me in my pajamas! I *so* wanted to be one of the beautiful ladies all dressed up in long gowns and long evening gloves, dancing to Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians. Sorry, but modern clubs, with their light shows, loud music and barely dressed patrons just don’t have the same cache with me.

Eleanora