In the 1880s, men wearing chaps and spurs approached the bar, which was often no more than a 12-inch-wide piece of wood resting on two barrels, after a hard day of driving cattle, branding cattle and mending fence, and ordered a beer. The beer was fun to drink, but it also reduced the pain incurred from a hot, hard day’s work. There was no aspirin available; it was not synthesized until 1897. The beer alleviated the pains and maladies from a long day in the saddle.
A boy entered the bar with his father by his side, placed two pennies on the piece of wood, and said enthusiastically but politely, sarsaparilla, please. The bartender, inspired by the boy’s enthusiasm gave him two cold bottles for the price of one.
Sarsaparilla was made from various roots and was a precursor to modern root beer. The roots were boiled and the flavor of the root was extracted. Cinnamon and ginger were added to the extract from the roots. The taste came out to a mixture of a sharp and flavorful root extract and a sweet taste. It was the sweet flavor the boy was attracted to, and he looked forward to washing down a bottle of sarsaparilla with a bottle of sarsaparilla.
The boy left the bar with a bottle of the brew that tasted like sweet licorice in each hand. Bottles of this gourmet beverage were found adjacent to the gourmet root beers in many stores. The boy approached his father with a bottle in each hand and asked, would you like some? To which his father replied, no, son, it is all for you.
Back at the rustic bar the men drank beer, actually a little bit too much beer. Riding a horse was tough after they drank a few beers, but all made it back home. One by one the men left the bar to get ready for a long night’s sleep.
Back at his parent’s farm, his parents told him they were proud of him because he did not ask the bartender to give him a beer and he did not sneak some off another person’s table when they briefly stepped away. To use the simply elegant description, he was a good kid. He got up early and fed the animals and performed other tasks before he went to school. At the one-room schoolhouse, he told his friends how good the sarsaparilla tasted. In school he tried to concentrate on the lectures but found himself thinking about his next cold bottle of sarsaparilla. He told his friends at school about the beverage. Their fathers took them to the bar, and with two pennies they purchased and enjoyed the sweet nectar.