Reflections on a hot fudge sundae

Yesterday I was reminiscing about maple bars. Today it is hot fudge sundaes. I’ve always loved them, ever since the 1950’s when my family went on special Sunday outings to the A & W Drive In. In later years, I’ve enjoyed them as Peanut Buster Parfaits at the Dairy Queen. But there is so much more to the hot fudge sundae story… it is really a story about a blue Studebaker and how it changed our lives.

THE BLUE STUDEBAKER

I still remember our first family car
It was a Studebaker, blue I think
It wasn’t new, but that hardly mattered
Dad used a company truck to get
Back and forth to work
We kids walked the few blocks to school
And Mom sent me to the store with
Her shopping list or to the post office to get
Money orders to pay the bills
We didn’t have a checking account at a bank
We didn’t have much at all
Maybe that’s why the blue Studebaker still
Sticks in my head

It was the 50’s; the world was changing
And with the arrival of the Studebaker
Our lives changed too
Our small world suddenly expanded
Beyond where our feet or bicycles took us
Beyond Solberg’s grocery store with its
Flyspecked windows and wooden floors,
Where Grandma sold eggs
From her Rhode Island Red hens;
And even beyond the white-steepled Methodist
Church where Grandma and I sang in the
Choir and the outhouse was tipped over
Every Halloween

The Studebaker took us the thirteen miles we
Needed to go to reach the big city…
Well it wasn’t that big, but it had
A Safeway store with bright lights
And shiny tile floors; pre-packaged meat and
Frozen dinners in boxes
To heat, and serve on foldable metal tables
Placed in front of a television set
Black and white
With an antennae on the roof
That Dad had to turn this way or that way
To get it just right
After midnight there was only a test pattern
To watch

The best memories
Are of Sunday afternoons in summer,
The drive down Old Highway 99
Past Mom and Pop Wolff’s Del Ray Café
And across the narrow concrete bridge that
Spanned the South Umpqua… on our way
To the A & W Drive-In
Where Dad cranked down his window
Pressed the intercom button and
Placed our order
Four root beer floats
One hot fudge sundae - the sundae was mine
Even now when I eat a hot fudge sundae
I remember those Sunday afternoons
Sitting with my sisters in the back seat
Of our Studebaker
Spooning thick gooey hot fudge
Over my vanilla ice cream, and
Popping the maraschino cherry into my mouth

That blue Studebaker took us to a
World beyond what we had previously known
…Now it takes me back

... P. L. Morningstar