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Wenatchee’s The Owl soda fountain shows the sweet side of Christian community
A longtime fan recalls growing up with Wenatchee’s century-old The Owl soda fountain, where chocolate malts and neighborly community inspired his writing and his faith.
By Greg Asimakoupoulos | FāVS News Columnist
The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News.
The Owl soda fountain in Wenatchee celebrated its 100th birthday recently. Because of previously scheduled commitments on the coast, I was unable to attend. That was a huge disappointment because of my longtime connection to Wenatchee’s legendary landmark.
I first slurped a chocolate malt at Owl in the summer of 1964 shortly after our family moved to Wenatchee. It was love at first sip! And that was just the beginning. Most every Saturday during my junior high and high school years I would quench my thirst at my favorite watering hole. Back then the soda fountain was located in the rear of the Owl Drugstore on Wenatchee Avenue and Palouse Street.
Pearl Yiatchos was the soda jerk I first remember. This single mom was not only good at her job, she took a personal interest in me. And that meant a lot to this 12-year-old. When I went away to Seattle Pacific University, I met Pearl’s son for the first time. Because of the “sweet” history I shared with his mom, Gary became a close friend. He eventually became my roommate when I graduated from college.
When I married and moved out-of-state, visits to the Owl became less frequent. But whether we were living in California or Illinois, our annual family vacations included time in Wenatchee. And every visit to Wenatchee meant at least one visit to The Owl. The soda fountain brought back happy memories of growing up in the valley. But it wasn’t just the memories I valued.
A childhood love of chocolate malts and community
The personal interaction I witnessed at the Owl growing up was a real-life illustration of the authentic community I loved in that old television sitcom “Cheers.” The genuine neighborliness in The Owl’s counter-culture was similar to that fictional bar in Boston. And it wasn’t just pretend.
As a young pastor I saw a refreshingly satisfying metaphor of Christian community in the Owl. Because the soda fountain fellowship was an example of the kind of congregational interaction I hoped for in the church I was serving, I wrote about it in our church newsletter. I sent a copy of my column to Wilfred Woods who was editor of The Wenatchee World at the time. To my delight, he published my commentary about the fountain on the front page of the paper.
Seeing my article in print motivated me to write other articles about the Owl. They appeared in both religious and secular magazines and newspapers. The fact that Wenatchee has one of the few remaining old-fashioned soda fountains in the country motivated my ongoing pursuits. You might say I became the unofficial publicist for my hometown fountain.
When a publisher approached me about writing a book about the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” my hometown soda fountain came to mind. I wrote a chapter in which I compared The Owl to the fountain in Gower’s Drugstore where a young George Bailey worked.
A quarter century ago, the Owl Drugstore closed and the soda fountain was purchased by a high school classmate and her husband. That transaction gave me all the more reason to promote my friends’ business. I looked for ways to spread the word near and far. And I had a blast doing it. When I became the chaplain at a Seattle-area retirement community, I chauffeured regular day trips to Wenatchee to introduce residents to the Owl.
Finding ways to publicize Wenatchee’s landmark has helped me see how natural it is to share the good news about God’s love with others. When you genuinely believe in something that has touched your life, talking about it isn’t an effort. It’s a labor of love. You want others to experience what has touched your life in a meaningful way. And when they do, it’s as refreshing as a thick rich chocolate malt at the Owl.
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