05/08/2026
🍨SODA FOUNTAIN EXHIBIT!🍔
Back in the day, a trip to the drug store was about much more than picking up medicine.
Imagine stepping through the front door on a warm Jasper afternoon. You’d hear the soft hum of ceiling fans, the clink of glass bottles, and the sound of neighbors visiting across the soda fountain counter. Children might spin slowly on the stools while waiting for a hand-mixed soda, milkshake, or ice cream float.
The local drug store was often a gathering place — part pharmacy, part café, part community center. People came not only for prescriptions, but to catch up on town news, meet friends after school, enjoy a cold Coca-Cola, or share a sandwich and a slice of pie.
Unlike today’s fast trips through modern pharmacies, these spaces encouraged folks to slow down and visit awhile. The pharmacist often knew generations of families by name. Teenagers gathered here after football games, families stopped in after church, and neighbors shared stories at the counter.
Our soda fountain exhibit is a replica meant to help visitors imagine what that experience may have felt like here in Jasper County — a time when the drug store was part of the heartbeat of the community.
