My oldest sister married the nicest fellow back in 1973, I’d say. His family was largely Lithuanian and Polish. I don’t remember much about the wedding itself. But, the reception seemed otherworldly, as it included several large tables near the cake, all of them filled with wedding cookies and desserts.
A nine-year-old’s dream.
I just looked at the old album, and I am not in a single photograph at the reception. I am sure this is because I was off in some corner, eating cookies from paper plates and drinking root beer from little glass bottles.
By the end of the reception, I was in the bathroom throwing up.
I haven’t had root beer since that day.
It is a time I will never forget, and I mention it today because this is the birthday of Charles Elmer Hires. Yes, the famous Pharmacist and Root Beer Brewer.
Good old Charles Hires was the first person to brew root beer commercially. Of course, his name sounds familiar because we all know Hires Root Beer.
Charles came into this world on August 19, 1851. His parents were John and Mary (Williams) Hires, and he was born in Salem County, New Jersey. His mom was a descendant of Martha Washington, for anyone interested in those ties.
Despite her heritage, the family was not wealthy whatsoever. So, at the young age of 12, his parents sent Charles to work as an apprentice at a drugstore owned by his brothers-in-law.
When he turned 16, Charles moved to Philadelphia and worked in a pharmacy in the City of Brotherly Love. He saved his money like crazy during that job. Finally, he accumulated nearly $400 in his fat little piggy bank. So he bought his own drugstore.
The story goes that Charles Elmer Hires learned about root beer on his honeymoon in New Jersey. He and his wife, Clara Kate Smith, stayed at a hotel. The woman who ran the place served an herbal tea made from roots known as “root tea.” Charles liked it and learned all about the stuff, how to make it, and such. Oh yeah. A good honeymoon indeed.
He liked the beverage so much that he shared it with his friends. One of his pals, a guy named Russell Conwell (who, incidentally, went on to found Temple University), suggested that he should call it “root beer.” Conwell said the “beer” would be more appealing to the working class. So that is what Charles did.
To start out, Hires packaged a dry mixture of his “root beer” in boxes and sold it to housewives and owners of soda fountains. But they needed to mix in water, sugar, and yeast to make the drink complete.
Nobody was really digging on his new beverage. But his buddy, Conwell, once again, convinced Charles to present his product at the 1876 U.S. Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
It is all in the marketing, as they say. To make his “root beer” stand out, Charles tagged his drink “the temperance drink” and “the greatest health-giving beverage in the world.”
Well. Folks will believe what you tell them in many cases. Soon after the Exposition, his business boomed. Charles opened a factory in Philadelphia dedicated to making root beer.
After developing root beer, Charles set his sights on other things. He made significant advances in manufacturing evaporated milk.
So cheers to Charles. He died in 1937 at the age of 85. And many people around the world still enjoy his Hire’s Root Beer.
But not me.
==========
“There is no perfect place, job, or life. We only have the present time. Love what you do, or do something else.”
― Rodolfo Peon
==========
“Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
===========
“Do anything, but let it produce joy.”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
===========
Get to the root of it all.
