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DR
PEPPER MUSEUM - WACO
Soft Drink History and Free Enterprise
“I’m a Pepper, he’s a Pepper…Wouldn’t
You Like To Be a Pepper, too? Drink Dr Pepper”. Boy, a good advertising
campaign slogans stick in your head. Years later they pop up in your
mind like old memories lodged in a synaptic nook. Dr Pepper is that particularly
American brand of soda pop, always further down in the fountain than
big competitors like Coke and Pepsi - perhaps because it never used some
of the more addictive additives of those icons, or perhaps its flavor,
with a slight piquant rather reminiscent of prunes. Dr Pepper the bottled
carbonated drink is actually the oldest major national brand soft drink
in America, predating Coca-Cola by a year, first formulated in 1885,
by a pharmacist, Dr Charles Atherton at his Old Corner Drug Store in
Waco, Texas, and originally called “Crazy Water”, before
gaining its familiar brand name.
The
Dr Pepper Museum is located in the former bottling plant of the brand,
built in 1906 as the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company,
designed by Architect Milton Scott. The present day brand is now owned
by food and beverage conglomerate Schwepps/Cadbury and made elsewhere,
but the museum in Waco offers a look back into the story of the soft
drink and its unique place in American culture. At the museum, you find
a recreation of the original drug store fountain, the remaining factory
machines and original artesian well from which the water was drawn and
filtered. Upstars a recreation of a 1930’s country story and filling
station. Also a great deal about the marketing that brings a product
to national attention. Dr Atherton came up with his formula, not at first
as a soft drink, but as a health remedy, launched with the slogan “Vim,
Vigor and Vitality”. It’s marketing took off with the slogan
touting its sugar and herbal formula as a nutritional pick me up with
the slogan “Drink a Bite to Eat at 10, 2 and 4”, a reaction
to the WWII era rationing which classified sugar as a food (which is
why you’ll see those numbers on the old label - something for the
trivia contest).
With
the main exhibits covering two floors, the Dr Pepper Museum holds one
of the most comprehensive collections of soft drink memorabilia in
the world. Not just Dr Pepper, but a whole variety of soft drink brands
are represented, from Mr Pibb to Kickapoo Joy Juice. The collection and
story of root beers, the home made beverage brew of the Prohibition Era
that turned to a favorite drink of millions is explored with brands recognized
from across the country and times past. One of my first jobs was working
for Stewarts Root Beer in New Jersey, and found it among the Dads and
other nearly forgotten corners of the sugar rush. The Dr Pepper Museum
is not just a historical journey. After a visit to the floors above,
stop into the on-site soda fountain for a real Dr Pepper Float or fizz.
The shop also sells Dr Pepper, Root Beer and other flavor syrups to take
home and enjoy in your own soda fountain, or perhaps deconstruct the
secret formula. And don’t forget the Dr Pepper flavored jelly beans.
Free Enterprise Institute
On
the third floor of the museum, you’ll find the added exhibit
of the Free Enterprise Institute, a chance to get a little supply-side
entrepreneurial inspiration with your soda pop. W. W. Foot
Clements was one of the Dr Pepper company’s most influential
leaders. He started as a salesman, marketing the drink in filling stations
and
small town
markets, rising with the brand. It was his dream to inspire the young
and adults alike with the principals of the free enterprise system, using
the soft drink industry as an example. The upper floor at the museum
has a recreation of his office, interactive exhibits of his marketing
techniques (including some tips from his ghost), and a theater for presentations
to school groups.
Visiting the Dr Mepper Museum
The
Dr Pepper Museum is located at 300 South 5th Street at the Corner of
Mary Avenue, next to the railroad tracks in downtown Waco. The museum
is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 4:15pm (last admission) and Sunday
12pm to 4:15pm. The souvenir store and Soda Fountain are open until 5pm.
The hours are sometimes extended in peak months. Admission is $8 for
adults, $6 for seniors, and $4 for students and children. Audio Guide
wands are $1 for rental. © Bargain
Travel West
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Dr Pepper
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