Welcome to the Soda Shop
When I was a kid, I loved to visit my grandfather’s soda shop at the corner of Helen and Fourth in Mansfield, Ohio, on warm summer days. I skipped up the sidewalk, through the corner door, greeted the wooden Indian, and jumped up to the counter, swinging my feet and spinning the barstool. On the wall behind the bar hung a large pair of antlers. While my grandfather mixed me up a chocolate soda, I searched for anything new and exciting on the cluttered and colorful wall. The narrow aisles revealed a treasure trove of balsa wood airplanes, whoopee cushions, fake turds, gum, Lifesavers, and Coca Cola.
Opening paragraph of Scott Brown: Cartoonist
by Christopher A. Kuntz (2023)
Wooden Indians, Brown's Soda Shop
Two wooden Indians graced the front entrance to the store at different times over the years. At first, the Indian was placed on the sidewalk outside the entrance, later it was placed inside the door.
Scott Brown at the entrance to the soda shop, ca 1940.
Soda Shop Clock
This clock, made just after the turn of the century, hung in the Soda Shop until the Soda Shop closed in 1970.
The face shows four red diamonds (three are visible, one is hidden behind the minute hand). These were cut out of cigar boxes and pasted to the face of the clock by Hugh Maurice Brown. They told customers when the trolley car stopped at the corner of Helen and Fourth in front of the store.
