Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Memories by Bev Jackson Cotter

Timber! No, not Northwoods lumbering style. We’re talking here about an ice cream sundae with seven scoops of ice cream, each with its own topping, then a dollop of whipped cream and crowned with a cherry.

Several of us teenagers had just left a Luther League meeting and decided to treat our associate pastor to the special ice cream sundae at the soda fountain in the North Side Drug Store.

We pooled our nickels and for 35 cents we surprised him, and then couldn’t help but laugh at the look on his face when the gigantic ice cream treat was placed in front of him. Where did it get the name Timber? Who knows?

Remembering that incident brought back so many memories of restaurants and dairies and drive-ins in Albert Lea in the 1950s. Shea’s Ice Cream Store on Clark Street was a popular stop with the high school crowd and Gold’s Grill on North Broadway. Or you could swing into Morlea Dairy on North Broadway or Thomson Dairy on West Clark for a nickel ice cream cone. Ten cents if you wanted two scoops.

Maybe you preferred popcorn. Gretchen’s Sweets on Clark Street or the stand by Gulbrandson’s Hardware store on South Broadway provided bags for five or 10 cents.

Maybe you preferred baked goods. On the 100 block of South Broadway, you had two options, the Albert Lea Baking Co., and across the street, the Brownie Bake Shop both provided absolutely delicious cookies and donuts and cakes and breads and Neapolitans. Special treats.

If you were heading further south, you might stop at the Dairy Queen near the courthouse or even further, the Big Dipper. There after school or a movie matinee teenagers could linger over their nickel cokes while discussing classes, school dances, football games, fashions and boyfriends.

Maybe a special occasion or Sunday following church was the reason for a dinner out. Then Phil’s Café on East William or the Canton Café on South Broadway or the Coffee Shop or Spanish Dining Room of the Hotel Albert might be your choice.

How about lunch during the week? You could buy a Maid-Rite on East William for 10 cents or a hamburger at Ma’s Café on South Broadway or the Hamburger Inn on East Main or Stieler’s Hamburger Shop on West College or the Bridge Café on Bridge Avenue or Dee’s Grill on Highway 65 NE or the Elbow Room on East Eighth Street or the Hyde Grill on East William.

There were several more restaurants and drive-ins around town, almost all of them locally owned and often run by families. There was even a small lunch counter at the M & St. L depot.

I had stopped at the library of the Freeborn County History Center to do a little research. Instead, I found myself looking through the 1957 City Directory, reminiscing and lost in memories, wonderful memories. That day, I left the library smiling, and I am still smiling, thinking about those nickel cokes and 15-cent strawberry sodas and that 35-cent Timber.

Bev Jackson Cotter is a lifelong resident of Albert Lea.