"Pig Latin" at the Fountain (July 1931)

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   From the SODA FOUNTAIN, July 1931, pg. 28, col. 1:

   _"Pig Latin" at the Fountain_
   A language all its own has the Martin Fountain in Martin's Confectionery at Puyallup, Wash., in the midst of the fruit and berry region of the Northwest, a slang which heightens the interest and the merriment of the fountain guest who places an order and listens with avid interest to hear the way that order is repeated.
   For one "black cow", one "old style", "grind one", a "strawn", an "honest", all mark the conversation of a simple fountain drink order into the technical language of this fountain which has established its own Pig Latin for the entertainment of its guests and employes.
   In the old days, Western restaurants of log-cabin type, had similar slang.  An order for a couple of eggs, sunny side up, was shouted to the kitchen: "Adam & Eve on a raft".  When the diner would change his mind quickly and decide to have them scrambled, then the burly waiter would quickly shout:  "Wreck 'em."
   Now an interesting fountain of the West adds to tis service by the colloquialisms of the effervescing dispensers, bubbling over with good humor, and with joy in their work which makes them coin names and develop a vocabulary for the many specialties of the fountain.
   SOme of the more current appelations of this Northwest fountain are the following:
   "An Old Style"--root beer.
   "An Honest"---Cherry coke.
   But perhaps the raison d'etre of "an honest" and how this name developed may be in order.  It simply relates to the honesty and truthfulness of one George Washington who cut down a cherry tree, and is used to name, therefore, a cherry coke.
   "Shoot one"--a coco cola.
   "Black cow"--a root beer with milk in it.
   "Squeeze"--a lemonade.
   "A canary"--a coco cola with lemon.
   "Sour"--coco cola with lime.
   "Grind one"--an orangeade.
   "Strawn"--a strawberry soda.
   Not a little of the lively interest in the (Col. 2--ed.) Martin fountain is due to the enlivening phrases, the newness and novlety of the names, the ordering of a prosaic soda and the hearing of an imagination-tickling name that excites the fountain guest and gives the whole procedure an air of adventure.