No, you're not making it up, it's just not generally true anymore.

In the 50s, I think that was common. (In the 50s, maybe the drugstore was the only place that could afford industrial freezers to keep ice cream in. I don't know, it's as good a guess as any.)

Now, there are coffee shops that fill the niche, and drugstores sell drugs, pantyhose, cheesy paperback novels, and hair dye.

Specifically, ground meat of uncertain provenance smothered in thick gravy, enclosed in pastry, and eaten with tomato sauce--sorry, ketchup. Revolting, but a national tradition.

I find it endlessly entertaining that they actually had a political scuffle about meat-pies in the last NSW election. Or more specifically, Bob Carr was accused of being un-Australian or some such for not liking sausage rolls, and he countered with the "Actually, I prefer meat-pies, which are more Australian anyway!" masterstroke.

Edit - because typos do not a good first impression make.

yeah but what can you sing with a meat pie?

at least with a sausage roll you can sing: "It's a long way to the shop, if you wanna sausage roll!"

The drugstore in my hometown has a little meal counter area, though it's more 70's cafeteria now than 50's soda fountain. And, the people you see there have probably been going since they were teenagers in the 50's.

A friend of mine, whom I can vouch for as being authentically un-American, has written a British-American-British dictionary which will be published soon. You can see it here and review it here.

at least with a sausage roll you can sing: "It's a long way to the shop, if you wanna sausage roll!"

Is it wrong for a newbie to shudder at ACDC related puns? It's just that band ruined all my childhood attempts at listening to any channel that wasn't Classic FM.

Fay, yes, Eddie Izzard. Cake - or death?

Cake or death? I definitely follow the Marie Antoinette line of thinking on this one rather than the Lord Voldemort approach. "Let them eat death" just doesn't have that ring to it.

(You know, I adore Eddie Izzard, but upon reflection I don't know how much I fancy him. He's just too like me - it would be a Narcissism thing. And he's better at being glamorous than I am, damn him. Having one's bloke borrow one's frocks is one thing - having one's bloke look better in one's frocks than one does oneself...this I could see being a problem.)

Huh, I can see the amusement of "milk bar", but what about "drugstore" as a place with a soda fountain etc.? This is endlessly amusing to Unamericans.

But not all drugstores have soda fountains. (Actually, very few do, now.) To me, the weirdness is whoever decided that a drugstore would be a good place to put a soda fountain, but when I think about what's in a typical small town downtown area, the drugstore seems as logical a place as any.

t hazarding wild guess iirc, lots of soft drinks were initially marketed as 'health' drinks? Like Tonic water? Coke and the various other colas definitely were, and Dr Pepper still has the 'Dr' bit to its name, so it probably wasn't as much of a random crazy thing at the time.

Is it wrong for a newbie to shudder at ACDC related puns? It's just that band ruined all my childhood attempts at listening to any channel that wasn't Classic FM.

Hah! I grew up in Elizabeth, the freakin' heartland of Barnsey, Chisel and AccaDacca. I have two wooden legs b/c I had to gnaw off my real ones to escape hearing those clowns!