I have this image in my head of taking my grandmother to have lunch at the Woolworth’s in Macon, GA, in the 1970s, near where my family lived. I don’t recall what we ordered, but the image was sparked recently by some ice cream parlor jars and soda fountain syrup bottles at auction.
Woolworth’s always had lots of ice-cream treats on its menu, so I’m hoping I ordered some for her. My memory of that trip is vivid, but the details are blurry.
My grandmother was in her 70s then, and had lived for decades in a Southern town that forbidded her from doing something as simple as eating lunch at that store. She was a very quiet and peaceful woman who didn’t put up a fuss – as she would describe it – and likely never thought about going there. Or did she, I wonder. I remember trying to talk to her once about her life, but she just brushed me aside. Older black people tended to shield their past from us.
Ice cream parlors and soda fountains were a hit in the 1950s, and we’ve all seen the old photos of white teens in bobby socks and saddle shoes sitting on stools at the counter or in booths enjoying malts and cones and shakes. For black teenagers, though, sitting at those counters and ordering sundaes was off-limits.
In one southern state, a group of youths decided to test this segregation rule at the Royal Ice Cream parlor in Durham, N.C., in 1957. They sat down at booths, and were arrested by police and charged with trespassing. In 1962, youths with protest signs marched outside the parlor, as shown in these photos on the endangereddurham blog. Last month, a marker noting the sit-in was erected at the site.
Their protest was about three years before the famous sit-in by North Carolina A&T students at a Woolworth’s counter in Greensboro, N.C. In my research, I came across mention of a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Macon in the 1960s (which I do not recall).
Despite the popularity of the parlors, the paraphernalia at auction recently went surprisingly cheap, it seemed to me. One of the neatest items was an antique copper, tin and glass paneled ice cream cone countertop display jar, with cones, 13” tall. It sold for $60.
Here’s what else was sold:
Vintage 5-cent glass ice cream cone countertop display jar, 12 ½” tall with a metal lid. There were still cones inside the jar. $40.
1910 Stromeyers Grape Punch glass soda fountain syrup bottle with original cup, reverse label. 12” $55. The auctioneer said this one was rare.
1910 Vin Fiz glass fountain syrup bottle with original cup, reverse label. 12” $65. Another rare bottle, according to the auctioneer.
Early 20th-century Greater New York Extract Co., 421 S. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, glass soda fountain syrup bottles. Chocolate, vanilla, cherry. 12” There was damage to the glass over the labels. $35.
Pair of early 20th-century thin-ribbed glass straw holders. 13” The auctioneer said they were circa 1910-1920 and were a “rare pair.” $60.
In researching ice cream parlors and soda fountains, I found some interesting links to African Americans. Did you know:
A man named Augustus Jackson, who had been a White House chef and later moved to Philadelphia, created several ice cream recipes and came up with a method for manufacturing ice cream circa 1832. He sold it in cans to shops. According to one website, many blacks in Philadelphia owned ice cream parlors and made ice cream during that time.
Around the same time, Aunt Sally Shadd, a freed slave who owned a catering business in Wilmington, DE, also created her own ice cream recipes, which First Lady Dolly Madison later served at White House parties.
The ice cream scoop was created by Alfred L. Cralle of Pittsburgh.
