Kristin Holt's Blog, page 14

New at the Soda Fountain: Coca-Cola!

Coca-Cola was born in Atlanta, and quickly gained popularity at drugstores and soda fountains, showing up very quickly a thousand miles away in mid-Kansas! Coca-Cola was touted for a wide variety of medicinal benefits, including nervous affections and sick headache. In less than fifteen years, Coca-Cola was widely known from New England to Los Angeles. Coca-Cola belongs on the long list of American Victorian Inventions.

Soda Fountain: 19th Century Courtships

At the Turn of the 20th Century (year 1900), the Soda Fountain was a safe and socially acceptable place for men and women to meet. Courting couples could enjoy a little semi-private time tucked in the back of the drug store sipping one Coca-Cola from two straws. Come see a vintage article written about why soda fountains foster romance, and how the Soda Men must safeguard themselves against falling for lonely maiden customers. Soda Fountains remained a courtship and dating icon from the late nineteenth century through the 1950s and beyond. What was the draw?

The Soda Fountain: Behind the Counter

Behind the 19th century soda fountain counter, "baristas" known as Dispensers or Soda Men (or sometimes Soda Jerks, because of the movement of the levers when dispensing drinks), knew a tremendous amount about customer service, the making of an ever-growing list of beverages, and the care and use of operating the soda apparatus. While other trained men mixed syrups, compounded recipes for everything from soda water to flavorings to syrups, and cleaned and repaired the machines, this article focuses on the Soda Men and their key role in the success of a Victorian-American Soda Fountain. This post is filled with primary-source recipes, tips for excellent customer service, and instructions to properly pour a soda water or ice cream soda.

The Victorian-era Soda Fountain

The Soda Fountain was a hallmark of late Victorian-era United States culture. Numerous patents and patent renewals show the developments in technology--just how complicated and how effectively simple the designs were. Vintage newspaper articles explain Europe's reaction to Dows' Soda Fountain in the American Restaurant at Paris's Universal Exhibition. Soda fountains have come a long way!

June 20th: National Ice Cream Soda Day! NOT your Victorian Ice Cream Sodas.

Today, June 20th, is National Ice Cream Soda Day! We're all familiar with Ice Cream Sodas... any flavor ice cream, floating in any flavor soda, right? Yes, unless you're a Victorian American at the oh, so popular Soda Fountain. The nineteenth century's Ice Cream Soda just might surprise you!

The Heiress A Chambermaid: Adventures of Two Lovesick Men in a Hunt for $85,000 Through a Matrimonial Agency

Scams involving fraudulent matrimonial companies abounded in the nineteenth century. Vintage newspapers often reported circumstances, chastised the foolish hearts who sent money to their correspondent, and insisted that no man or woman worth marrying needed to resort to the mail or an agency. This article, titled the same (as my post) was originally published in The New York Times, January 21, 1900, and details the circumstances of a purported "heiress", gushing love letters on scented stationery, her two lovesick swains, the Manhattan matrimonial agency, and the judge's decree.

Introducing: OH DANNY BOY by Josie Riviera

New Release today, June 13, 2017: Oh Danny Boy by USA Today Bestselling Author Josie Riviera. This Sweet Contemporary Romance is available with Kindle Unlimited, and was Kindle Scout approved.

BOOK REVIEW: The Indie Book Marketing Crash Course by Nicholas Erik

Nicholas Erik's title, The Indie Book Marketing Crash Course: A 5 Day Step-by-Step System to Increasing Your Book Sales (Crash Courses for Authors 1) was an enlightening and helpful read. As I rated it so highly, I wrote a review (both here and on Goodreads) to assist other writers (or those simply curious about how an author goes about succeeding at marketing a book) with the process. Indie Authors will find this title super helpful. Even better--this title is FREE on all Amazon platforms and on Google Play...and it looks like it intends to stay that way.

Victorian America: Women Control Happiness At Home

Vintage newspaper articles from 1827 and 1876 illustrate the Victorian-era attitude regarding a woman's work within the home. Far more than meal preparation and child-rearing, these brief statements memorialize the era's viewpoint of differences between men and women, and the wife's cherished role as confidante, partner in sorrows and joys, whose feminine endowment brings "exquisite tact which rounds the sharp corners, and softens the asperities of different characters, enabling people differing most widely to live together in peace..."

Sweet Romance: 99-cent special!

USA Today Bestselling Author Donna Fasano has a well-loved book on sale! Hurry--the price reduction lasts only through Tuesday, May 23rd. This 99-cent sale is available at all major eBook retailers.