Dr. Pepper Museum-- Waco, Texas

Dr. Pepper signs at the museum

 "Liquid snack puts energy back", "Drink your bite to eat", "One kind of household 'help' that never lets you down", "King of beverages" or in other words, Dr. Pepper.

You guessed it! This week I had the pleasure of visiting the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco, Texas!

This is me at the front of the museum.

Dr Pepper was invented in Waco, Texas at Mr. Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store by a young man named Charles Alderton. Alderton was a pharmacist so he mostly mixed medicine, but in his free time he liked to serve customers carbonated drinks from the soda fountain.

He loved the way the drug store he worked in smelled--with fruit flavors and syrups mixing together. So he set out to create a drink that tasted like that smell.

After he found a mix he liked, he let the owner of the drug store try it.  What do you know?  He liked it!  They started to offer his new drink to the soda fountain customers. They liked it too.

Word about the new drink spread but it didn't have a name so when people wanted one they called it "a Waco" because it was from Waco, Texas.

No one knows how it got named "Dr. Pepper" but they believe it was probably named that by Mr. Morrison.

Here I am in "Foot's" office

Once inside the museum, we decided to head over to Foots' office. Foots is just a nickname, his real name is Woodrow Wilson Clements.

Foots started working as a delivery truck driver when he was in college. After 6 ½ years and three attempts, he was finally hired by the Dr. Pepper company. 

He became the vice president and general manager of Dr. Pepper in 1957. He worked hard and in 1980 he served as president, CEO, and chairman of the board. While Foots was in charge Dr Pepper grew more than ever and eventually became a major player in the soft drink industry.

Me in front of the projected Foots

Just outside Foots' office we saw an actor playing Foots. I wanted to know how much he got paid to do that kind of thing, because if they pay well than I wanted to apply, but when I got closer I noticed that he was just a projection!

When I walked by the projector turned on and he walked up and started talking. I thought that was really cool. I still think it would be pretty fun to dress up for something like that.

When we were ready for lunch, we decided to get hamburgers and head over to a soda shop in the museum. I got a Dr. Pepper--we were at the Dr. Pepper museum after all. My friend got some soda that had a really weird name. I can't remember the name anymore, but I remember thinking it was a kind of different sound that I really liked.

My favorite room in the museum was the room that has the equipment that was used to bottle soda the same way it was done when Dr. Pepper first started. It had all sorts of really neat pipes and gears.  They said that some of the equipment may have come from the Dr. Pepper bottling plant but most of it came from other bottling plants that were going out of business.

The machine used to bottle soda

One more neat thing I learned was that when they were remodeling the plant to make the museum, they discovered the original well that supplied the plant with water. You could look into it, but I didn't want to fall in, so I made sure I didn't get too close to the edge. When they discovered the well, it was filled with broken glass Dr. Pepper bottles.

Quack Report:

I tested out my quack on Foots before I realized he was just a projection.  I wanted him the hear it because I thought he'd be impressed and arrange a job for me. But then I realized he was just a projection. The quack turned out really well anyway. It was long, loud, and the echo was fantastic!! I was disappointed that I'd wasted my all-time-best quack on a projection.