Choose any gun you like. Just make the blue eyed secretary a brunette. And female, preferably...
choosing a s&w revolver for a soda jerk.
- Thread starter mg357
- Start date
amazingflapjack
US Veteran
Diamondbacks nailed it in my view. A "soda jerk" in that time frame would be more concerned about keeping his "DA" hair do shine-olaed to his head. His weapon of choice was a "rat tail" comb, sticking out of his tight butt britches, but one thing you got right, he would have definitely been on the look out for the young lady you described. Flapjack.
FWIW... During the war my father saved much of his pay and when he returned home he bought a Smith & Wesson M&P which he carried when the occasion demanded it, and which my Mother kept under his pillow when my father was out of town. In 1959 the gun was stolen and my father replaced it with a .45 Colt Commander.
At a glance, a WWII Vet, in 1951, employed as a 'Soda Jerk' does not seem very likely unless the guy is a real loser and yet somehow good with people and trustworthy and emotionally stable.
Soda Jerks were either the Owner, Wife of the Owner, or typically, a highschool kid or maybe someone fresh out of high school, rather than a mature man in his mid to late 20s, who had been through WWII six to nine years before.
Just does not seem a good fit to me anyway.
And not a gig anyone who had been anywhere, would want or accept.
Let alone, that the pay would have been very very 'low', and not really enough for a man to live on.
Paper Routes payed better...endless things payed better...it was a job for 'kids' just old enough to have a first job...not a 'Man's Job'.
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John Frederick Bell
Member
I don't know what all this is worth, but my grandpa on my mother's side was a part-time soda jerk in the era specified. He worked in a drug store after he got out of the army (Korean War era, but he did his hitch in Germany).
At the time he owned a Winchester Model 94 - lurking in my safe, at present - for deer season and a Stevens (I think) single shot folding saddle gun in 12 gauge. He kept an ax handle behind the seat of his truck for the occasion he got into the situation he needed a weapon, which was a fairly extreme rarity if I remember correctly.
He wasn't anti-gun by any stretch of the imagination, but he also held the idea that any man packing a concealed handgun was either a cop, a fed, or somebody looking for or liable to start trouble. He spent most of his life in and around a good-sized city (Austin) and nothing he ever told me hinted that he found it to be an especially dangerous place.
Good luck with your writing.
I'd suggest some more research, though.
At the time he owned a Winchester Model 94 - lurking in my safe, at present - for deer season and a Stevens (I think) single shot folding saddle gun in 12 gauge. He kept an ax handle behind the seat of his truck for the occasion he got into the situation he needed a weapon, which was a fairly extreme rarity if I remember correctly.
He wasn't anti-gun by any stretch of the imagination, but he also held the idea that any man packing a concealed handgun was either a cop, a fed, or somebody looking for or liable to start trouble. He spent most of his life in and around a good-sized city (Austin) and nothing he ever told me hinted that he found it to be an especially dangerous place.
Good luck with your writing.
I'd suggest some more research, though.
smokey04
Member
Jeeze, Not to be argumentative but have some of you not read Elmer Keiths' "Hell I was There" or "Sixguns". How about the many stories of Skeeter Skelton? If memory serves me, Skeeters mom traded her Colt Pocket Model for Skeets first decent shotgun. Skeeter mentioned many times, his dads .22 Colt auto and his pre Mod. 10 S&W. I was born in 1943 but I can remember in 1947-8 that my Grandfather carried a Colt .45 SAA for work[he was a "trouble shooter" for the Seaboard Rail Road]My Grandmother had a S&W top break and a Spanish knock off of a Mod. 10. Additionally there was a 12ga. and a.22 rifle and an air rifle that my uncle brought back from Germany .These were not wealthy people,nor did they hunt or shoot a lot.I think there were many guns around after WWII. Nick
Stophel
Member
In the 70's when I was a kid, my grandfather ALWAYS had a .25 Colt jr. auto in his pocket. I don't know, but wouldn't doubt that his habits were not changed from the '50' (though the gun would have! 
)
This is Kentucky, after all, and we like packin' our guns around...
)This is Kentucky, after all, and we like packin' our guns around...
Stophel
Member
The Soda Jerk. Norman Rockwell. 1953
GyMac
US Veteran
This reminds me that Skeeter wrote he bought a Colt SAA for a travelling-home gun after he got out of the service. As I recall, it was a .44-40 as he couldn't find a .45.
The Soda Jerk. Norman Rockwell. 1953
and the girl is saying, "hey is that a pistol in your pocket or are ya glad to see me?"
On a more serious note, I just remember my father telling me that one of the guns that I inherited was from his father's (my grandfather) store. FWIW, it is an Iver Johnson nickel top break in .32 S&W.
and the girl is saying, "hey is that a pistol in your pocket or are ya glad to see me?"
On a more serious note, I just remember my father telling me that one of the guns that I inherited was from his father's (my grandfather) store. FWIW, it is an Iver Johnson nickel top break in .32 S&W.
"This reminds me that Skeeter wrote he bought a Colt SAA for a travelling-home gun after he got out of the service. As I recall, it was a .44-40 as he couldn't find a .45."
Skeeter mustered out of the Marine Corps in Chicago and couldn't find a .45, so he bought a 7 1/2" .32-20. He later had it rebarreled to .45 Colt.
Skeeter mustered out of the Marine Corps in Chicago and couldn't find a .45, so he bought a 7 1/2" .32-20. He later had it rebarreled to .45 Colt.
Heck...forget the dang gun.
Come up with a better occupation besides a "soda jerk".
Come up with a better occupation besides a "soda jerk".
smithman 10
US Veteran
Soda Jerk's gun
I was a teen-age high school kid soda jerk in 1963-64, just 12 years after the plot line of the script. No adults worked the counter, except the ladies who cooked the lunch specials.
The place filled up stool to stool for those specials during the work week in the summer when I was there.
The thought of anyone, customer or clerk, carrying a pistol there never entered my mind, although at home we had I think two .22 rifles and a 20 gauge single barrel shotgun at the time. There was very little crime in the area, like folks said, people rarely locked their car doors going into a store, left the house door unlocked half the time, and didn't think about self defense except maybe how to outbox some bully!
It was a different time altogether - I miss it.
I was a teen-age high school kid soda jerk in 1963-64, just 12 years after the plot line of the script. No adults worked the counter, except the ladies who cooked the lunch specials.
The place filled up stool to stool for those specials during the work week in the summer when I was there.
The thought of anyone, customer or clerk, carrying a pistol there never entered my mind, although at home we had I think two .22 rifles and a 20 gauge single barrel shotgun at the time. There was very little crime in the area, like folks said, people rarely locked their car doors going into a store, left the house door unlocked half the time, and didn't think about self defense except maybe how to outbox some bully!
It was a different time altogether - I miss it.
