Dr. Pepper's origins?

[NW Mailing List]

Ed,
I am so glad you mentioned the Moon Pie. As a lad in Roanoke in the early fifties, I would visit my grandmother, who lived about half a mile from my home to watch the Virginian Pacifics pull that little VGN Passenger train into or out of Roanoke. Almost always when I woke up at her home, there would be 11 cents on the dresser in my bedroom. This would buy me an RC for 6 cents and Moon pie for a nickel at a local "restaurant" (we didn't have 7-11s or convenient marts back then). I had told that story so much that at my Grandmother's Funeral several years ago, our minister told it for me....
Skip Salmon
---- NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

=============
Sam, dontcha know you gotta have a Moon Pie to go with those R-oh-C Cokecolas?

EdKing
----- Original Message -----
From: NW Mailing List
To: NW Mailing List
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 8:38 PM
Subject: Re: Dr. Pepper's origins?


I know I'm a bit late joining this discussion.

Concerning the popularity of Dr. Pepper in Roanoke in the 50's, I remember reading in the Roanoke Times a couple of years ago when the big Dr. Pepper sign downtown was being renovated that Dr. Pepper's PR folks said that the company (which I think is owned by Pepsi now) was glad to help fund the restoration because Roanoke is still the city/area with the highest DP consumption per capita. I know I do my part, at least with the diet version which tastes remarkably like the real thing, IMH0.

Also concerning Dr. Pepper being a Southern thing until recent decades, I remember well my Long Island cousins visiting my family in Farmville in the 50's and being tickled to discover a drink with that funny name. Of course, I and my sibs loved to visit New York and watch the reaction whenever we stopped at a gas station (there were no "convenience stores" in those days) and asked for a Dr. Pepper.

Concerning Royal Crown Cola, that was the Wilson Nehi Bottling Company's cola drink, so I would guess wherever you found Nehi you found RC and vice versa. In later years, RC was bottled by the Royal Crown Bottling Company, if my memory serves me correctly. I don't know if Nehi changed the name of the company or if RC was spun off to go national. I think Royal Crown Cola has been available continuously, but until recently I hadn't seen Nehi sodas for 20 or 30 years. I assumed the brand went defunct.

But, in January 2008 I was in Lansing, NC--yep, the same village that's on the Virginia Creeper Trail--and found the reincarnated Nehi sodas in the local grocery store! I was so elated I bought two, a grape and an orange. The bottles say "ORIGINAL NEHI" "The Tradition of Taste Since 1924." The bottles also say "BOTTLED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF DR PEPPER/SEVEN UP, INC, PLANO TX...." I didn't keep the caps, but I'm sure they said that the drinks were bottled in West Jefferson, NC! This really took me back because when I was growing up Nehi--and Coca-Cola as well--had a bottling plant in every small town or at least every town I visited in southern Virginia. The uncle of one of my friends worked at the one in Farmville (I think it's an auto parts store now) and I got to visit often. It was almost magical to watch those bottles marching along single-file and getting shot full of those beautiful colored liquids. And I always got strawberry.

I have since found the "new" Nehi's here in Roanoke. The new bottles are attractive but it would be nice if they went back to the old Nehi bottles that I remember as having a king of woven texture raised on the glass. Oh well, I'll take what I can get.

Sam Putney


----- Original Message -----
From: NW Mailing List
To: 'NW Mailing List'
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 4:53 PM
Subject: RE: Dr. Pepper's origins?


We need not forget RC (Royal Crown) Cola..especially if accompanied by a Moon Pie. Any true Southerner will understand!



I have many Wythe County ancestors going back to the Revolution so I like to believe it was in Rural Retreat. I well remember, as a child, my paternal Grandmother and Great-aunts (from Draper in Pulaski County) telling me that Dr. Pepper was invented in Rural Retreat.



What is the true story of Dr PepperÔ

There are a few different versions of how this beverage was conceived and named.


>From the Wythe County Bicentennial Book authored by Mary Kegley:


There are varying stories, but most accounts agree that the name was given to honor Dr. Charles T. Pepper who was said to have concocted the drink. His clerk at the store, Wade Morrison later went to Waco, Texas where he reproduced the drink naming it Dr. Pepper. Some say Morrison created the drink in Texas. After Morrison became the owner of the drug store in Texas, Charles C. Alderton of New York was hired to handle the soda fountain and mixed fruit flavors, finally blending the favorite drink now so popular. Robert Sherman Lazenby (1867-1941) president of DR. Pepper Company for many years is also credited with perfecting the flavor with a blend of 23 fruit flavors. The drink was probably introduced to the public on a regular basis about 1885, was first bottled in 1886. In 1888 it was bottled in Waco, TX by Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company.

Dr. Charles T. Pepper also had a son, Louis or Louie, an optometrist who was also known as Dr. Pepper. He worked part time in his father's drug store and also claimed to have developed the formula for the drink.

Another story is that Morrison had romantic aspirations on Dr. Pepper's daughter. Dr. Pepper was not in favor with the match and that is why Morrison left for Texas. This story is probably not true because within the time frame, Dr. Pepper's daughter would only have been around 5 at the time Morrison left.



Ed Painter - Narrows, Va currently living in Russellville, AR.







From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org [mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 11:07 AM
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Re: Dr. Pepper's origins?



I recall Dr. Pepper as being "only a Southern pop" like Nehi. Dr. Pepper's screen-door icon and roadside signs depicted a clock showing the times to take a a Dr. Pepper were 10, 2 and 4. I lived in Cleveland, but spent all my summers in Pulaski County, VA - both Nehi and Dr. Pepper were special summertime treats for me; they never showed up in Cleveland.



John Carnahan

Columbus, OH



PS: My Wythe County (Va.) uncle always told me that Rural Retreat was the cabbage-and-sauerkraut capital of the world, but I don't recall his mentioning Dr. Pepper.







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Skip Salmon
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