In Atmore's “general stores” children as well as grownups could find just about anything they needed. Some of the stores sported soda fountains and some didn’t, but they all had jars and jars of candy that fascinated the little children. They would always have one jar that had a jumbled up mix of cheap, broken candy that was called “bucket candy.” It was judged good enough for children, but was never sold to adults. In some of the other jars there was a collection of long black licorice sticks, gum drops, lemon drops, orange-colored candy corn, and chewy pinkish-yellow candy bananas that could take out a kid’s loose tooth in a heartbeat. Stick candy came in two flavors – peppermint with red stripes and transparent lemon. And there was also Crackerjack popcorn with a little prize in each box, hard gingersnaps called “Zuzus,” and animal crackers in a red cardboard box shaped like a cage. The Escambia Drug Store was one of the stores that actually had a soda fountain and is said to have served the first Coca-Cola drink in Atmore before bottling of the drink became popular. Prior to "bottling" the stores received a ten or twenty-six-gallon barrel of the syrup, which was used to mix the drink by hand. The first Coca-Cola advertisements proclaimed it as, “delicious, refreshing, and exhilarating. May be served hot or cold.” While the kids eyed the sugar treats in the jars, their father went about purchasing all the items required to run a successful farm. He loaded his wagon up with barrels of flour, sugar, rice and boxes of baking soda, salt and spices, vanilla and lemon extract. There were also cloth bags of dried black-eyed peas and dried peaches or prunes. There was a big wheel of “rat cheese” that could be bought by the pound plus boxes of matches, ammonia, and lard.
