Soft Drinks

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"My sister would take me to a cafe in The Crescent above the Lucky Stores where we would order a Canada Dry ice-cream soda. Late afternoon sitting on the balcony with a cooling overhead fan gently wafting over us we would sit and watch the shoppers arriving in the street below. Some had come in their own cars; some had arrived in taxis. They looked cool and refreshed after their afternoon 'gonks' (siestas), and ready for some haggling with the local store keepers. Where were they going I wonder? The Sydney Stores, Cowasjees, Express Photo Service perhaps? 

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A tall, wide-necked milk-shake glass would arrive with a generous scoop of delicious vanilla ice-cream. Icy-cold Canada Dry Cream Soda was then poured over the top, the resulting effervescence  usually seeing the contents bubble uncontrollably over the sides of the glass, unless you were quick enough sucking it all up through the straw; and this was in the days before the 'jumbo-sized' thick-shake straws. There was a long, slender spoon for eating the ice-cream but it was more fun to jiggle the spoon around to create more fizzy, frothy bubbles whilst adding more cream soda. 

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I've tried many different cream sodas in the last 40 years but none can compare to the taste of that Canada Dry Cream Soda in Aden."

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Empty soft drinks bottles were a good source of pocket money for us kids at the Lido in the 60's. Fortunately for us most people were not aware of the bottle refund or simply could not be bothered to take their empty bottles back to the shop for the refund. We'd run up and down the beach as mad as hermit crabs collecting as many empties as we could find, even hovering nearby someone taking a last swig so we'd be sure to beat a 'competitor' at getting the empty bottle.

  

Wide-necked, jumbo-sized vacuum flasks were becoming popular and folks would fill them with 'jungle-juice', that sickly-sweet powdered cordial drink. This did nothing to aid our burgeoning business empire.