BLOGGER Cherry phosphate was made with sweet, thick concentrated cherry syrup and "sody water." Back then, a quarter could get you a cherry phosphate (10 cents), a Superman comic book (10 cents), and 5 pieces of penny candy.
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THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE 4.11---The term cherry phosphate has a lovely, faded, elegiac ring to it. It brings to mind an ornate soda fountain, a white- jacketed soda jerk, and a precocious child clambering up a stool to a marble countertop, squawking, “Hey, mister, gimme a phosphate!” And is that the tinkly sound of a player piano? A cherry phosphate has always seemed wonderfully Capra- esque to me, even though I had no idea what was in it.
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