WUNDRAM: Sweet memories in soda fountain initials

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By Bill Wundram | Monday, August 04, 2008 |

They were high school sweethearts — Richard “Bourke” Thurston and Carla Dutton — who would hold hands in Booth No. 6 at the Candy Kitchen in Wilton, Iowa. It was a dim booth, in the rear of the landmark soda parlor.

One afternoon, teenager Bourke pulled out his pocket knife and carved in the booth, “Richard loves Carla.”

Fifty years ago this Friday,

Aug. 8, Richard and Carla of Wilton will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

Just to prove that old love lasts, it looked like they invited all their relatives and the whole town of Wilton to the Candy Kitchen for a soda fountain jamboree last Sunday afternoon. Everyone had to take turns and sit in Booth No. 6 and see the initials. “Richard loves Carla” is still intact there.

Some things never change in a small town like Wilton.

“We would never think of sanding out those initials. That’s country lore,” says Thelma Nopoulos, who runs the Candy Kitchen with her husband, George.

Says Carla:

“We wanted everyone to come and see where this whole thing started and look at those initials. We used to come here and dance after school. George wouldn’t allow dancing, so he’d unplug the jukebox. The whole place was monitored with the same mirrors that were there when Bourke and I were dating. George kept an eye on us. We’d order another Green River and when George wasn’t looking, we’d plug the jukebox back in. George was a sweet, harmless grump who put up with all the kids in town.”

That soda fountain romance led to three sons and four grandchildren.

Just for old time’s sake, Bourke and Carla had a Green River and a Cherry Coke. George even said they could dance and he wouldn’t pull out the plug.

Oops! Check the calendar

The irate customer called the newspaper office (not this one) loudly demanding to know where his Sunday edition was.

“Sir,” said the employee, “today is Saturday. The Sunday paper is not delivered till Sunday.”

There was quite a pause on the other end of the phone, followed by a ray of recognition.

“So that’s why no one else was in church today.”

The call he cannot make

For just about as long as there has been a Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival, Donna Howard has come to town from Florida.

“She just loved the festival,” says Ray Voss, prez of the Bix Memorial Society.

She loved it so much that a few years ago she paid for an 8-foot-tall oak tree to be planted in LeClaire Park, where the bands played.

Donna wanted it to grow in a place that would some day provide shade for afternoon jazz concert fans.

“It was a good-sized tree, probably six or eight feet tall and cost her $300,” says Voss.

By early this summer it had grown to about 14 feet.

Then, that awful storm struck, wreaking havoc to the park, as you shall read elsewhere in today’s paper.

Donna didn’t make it to the festival this year.

“I’ve learned that she is seriously ill with cancer,” says Voss. “I should call, to wish her well. But I can’t make the call. I know she will want to know about her tree. I can’t tell her that her tree blew over in the storm.”

Bill Wundram can be contacted at (563) 383-2249 or bwundram@qctimes.com.