Cor and I discovered an old-fashioned independent drug store with an old-fashioned soda fountain — like something from a black-and-white Jimmy Stewart movie — except this was just yesterday, just a twenty-minute drive from our house in Kent!

Cor got a cherry phosphate, and I got a vanilla phosphate (even these menu items sound like something from a bygone era, don’t they?!?).

The woman who served us said that a lot of the materials for the soda shop were salvaged from Quaker Square in Akron: the marble-topped tables… the brass-backed chairs… the stained-glass lamps… the beaded woodwork on the walls and the ceiling… and of course the counter with its attendant stools.

The drug store is also independently owned and operated, which also feels like something that I didn’t even know might still be in existence. Mantua Station feels like a special treasure, right here in our own back yard! You should go and give it a visit sometime, for the phosphates, for the malts, milkshakes, and scoops of ice cream — and, you know, for old time’s sake.