JUNE 9th - Meadow's Parking the Car

On this day in 1869, Charles Elmer Hires sold his first root beer in Philadelphia, which is actually still distributed by Dr. Pepper as Hires Root Beer (though I've never seen it). Apparently Hires was the first to refer to the drink as "beer" instead of tea, to appeal to the working class, which makes sense--you don't see many construction workers drinking tea on a lunch break. Though people can surprise you. Once ran into a tattooed truck driver who offered up a very poignant synopsis of Heidegger's Being and Time. That surprised me. Or when I went to ask a neighbor for sugar and the family answered the door dressed as KISS in full makeup. That was pretty surprising too. Back to Hires though. Apparently he promoted the drink on a Temperance platform, and thought it was the greatest health-giving drink in the world. Now this may sound surprising. But think of the context. Americans used to drink a lot more than they do now. Like a lot more. In 1830, the average American drank 1.7 bottles of hard liquor per week. Holy Jake-leg, Batman! That's a lot of booze. So much that they had that whole Prohibition thing in the 1920's, which of course gave rise to organized crime, which in turn gave rise to some of the greatest films and television shows ever. On The Waterfront. The Godfather. The Godfather Part II. Goodfellas. The Untouchables. The Sopranos. Which brings me back to surprises. Starting with Charles Elmer Hires and ending with Tony Soprano. Surprising. Root beer paving the way for excellent film and television. Don't stop believing.

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