Dudleys Diary

For those that did not know it, Dr Pepper was first made in Waco, Texas, in 1885. Wade B. Morrison, owner of Morrison's Old Corner Drug, employed a pharmacist named Charles Courtice Alderton, who, when not filling prescriptions, often served soft drinks to customers. Alderton enjoyed experimenting with various combinations of fruit extracts and sweeteners. One combination, later to become Dr Pepper, proved enormously popular with drugstore patrons. As the popularity of the beverage grew, the residents of Waco urged Morrison to name the drink. Morrison named the beverage after Dr. Charles T. Pepper, a physician and pharmacist for whom Morrison had worked in Rural Retreat, Virginia. The rest as they say is history. Dr Pepper has always been my soft drink of choice. We had a good time looking around the museum located in the old building that in the past was a Dr Pepper bottling plant. One of the neatest exhibits is an old artesian well about 25 feet deep brick lined that used to provide water for the plant. At some point the well was no longer used and all kinds of items were thrown in the old well for years until it was covered over. It was uncovered in recent times and archaeologists from Baylor University went down and excavated the old well and retrieved a lot of broken and a few unbroken Dr Pepper bottles and other artifacts. You can see an old restored drug store, an old timey soda fountain and old bottle delivery truck and a lot of other cool stuff. I have been wanting to go to this museum for years and am glad I finally did.