Bob, Jennie

I remember home made 'Spiders' in the 1950s usually Coke and Vanilla ice cream, but any carbonated drink would do - Lemonade was a favourite as well as 'Sars' - similar to 'Root Beer' - but Aussie Sars was always black in colour, and Ginger Ale - especially 'Kirks'. My mum seemed to know them from well before that - but then the Yank Air Force had invaded the large country town with a base... Her elder sister became a 'war bride'.

BTW, a favourite carbonated bottled drink at the time was 'creaming soda' - tasting not unlike a spider in one hit and usually coloured red.

Bundaberg was the home of the now popular commercial Bundaberg Ginger Beer too. It was almost as good as regular 'grandma home brewed' ginger beer - quite spicy too.

From family tales, there were 'soda bars' around, but the total US style of 'drug store' never seemed to be much around by the 1950s, mostly they seemed to end up as 'milk bars' or 'cafes'.

By the way, you could once get 'shakes' or 'malteds' at the concession bars of some picture theatres, but they soon were outdone by the installation of the 'mixer post' - which also cut back the sale of glass bottles of drinks (60s ish from memory) - waxed paper cups were far less dangerous when flung around during the 'kids matinees'... :-)