In The News

"DALLAS — Poking through antiques stores while traveling through the Texas Panhandle, Bill Waters stumbled across a tattered old ledger book filled with formulas.
He bought it for $200, suspecting he could resell it for five times that. Turns out, his inkling about the book's value was more spot on than he knew. The Tulsa, Okla., man eventually discovered the book came from the Waco, Texas, drugstore where Dr Pepper was invented and includes a recipe titled "D Peppers Pepsin Bitters."
"I began feeling like I had a national treasure," said Waters, 59.
Dr Pepper's manufacturer says the recipe is not the secret formula for the modern day soft drink, but the 8 1/2-by-15 1/2 inch book is expected to sell between $50,000 to $75,000 when it goes up for auction at Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries on May 13.
"It probably has specks of the original concoction on its pages," Waters said.
Waters discovered the book, its yellowed pages stained brown on the edges, underneath a wooden medicine bottle crate in a Shamrock antiques store last summer. A couple months after buying it, he took a closer look as he prepared to sell it on eBay.

He noticed there were several sheets with letterheads hinting at its past, like a page from a prescription pad from a Waco store titled "W.B. Morrison & Co. Old Corner Drug Store." An Internet search revealed Dr Pepper, first served in 1885, was invented at the Old Corner Drug Store in Waco by a pharmacist named Charles Alderton. Wade Morrison was a store owner.
Faded letters on the book's fraying brown cover say "Castles Formulas." John Castles was a partner of Morrison's for a time and was a druggist at that location as early as 1880, said Mary Beth Webster, collections manager at the Dr Pepper Museum and Free Enterprise Institute in Waco.

As he gathered more information, Waters took a slower turn through the book's more than 360 pages, which are filled with formulas for everything from piano polish to a hair restorer to a cough syrup. He eventually spotted the "D Peppers Pepsin Bitters" formula.
"It took three or four days before I actually realized what I had there," Waters said.
The recipe written in cursive in the ledger book is hard to make out, but ingredients seem to include mandrake root, sweet flag root and syrup.
It isn't a recipe for a soft drink, says Greg Artkop, a spokesman for the Plano-based Dr Pepper Snapple Group. He said it's likely instead a recipe for a bitter digestive that bears the Dr Pepper name.
He said the recipe certainly bears no resemblance to any Dr Pepper recipes the company knows of. The drink's 23-flavor blend is a closely guarded secret, only known by three Dr Pepper employees, he said.
Michael Riley, chief cataloger and historian for Heritage Auction Galleries, said they think it's an early recipe for Dr Pepper.
"We just feel like it's the earliest version of it," he said.
He hasn't, however, tested that theory by trying to mix up a batch. Neither has Waters; he's thought about it but would need to find someone to decipher all the handwriting.
Jack McKinney, executive director of the Waco museum, surmised that Alderton might have been giving customers something for their stomachs and added some Dr Pepper syrup to make it taste better.
"I don't guess there's any definitive answer. It's got to be the only one of its kind," Riley said.
McKinney said the ledger book was bound to be popular with Dr Pepper collectors because it's from the time the drink was invented.
Riley said the book was probably started around 1880 and used through the 1890s. It's not known who wrote the Dr Pepper recipe in the book, but they don't think it was the handwriting of Alderton or Morrison. Some of the formulas have Alderton's name after them.
At first, Alderton's drink inspired by the smells in the drugstore was called "a Waco." "People would come in and say, 'Shoot me a Waco,'" Riley said.
Soon renamed Dr Pepper, the drink caught on and other stores in town began selling it. Eventually, Alderton got out of the Dr Pepper business and Morrison and a man named Robert Lazenby started a bottling company in 1891.
Flipping through the pages of the ledger book takes one back to a time when drugstores were neighborhood hubs, selling everything from health remedies to beauty products mixed up by the stores' chemists. And among the formulas being mixed up in drugstores were treats for the soda fountain. A two-page spread in Waters' book has recipes for "Soda Water Syrups," including pineapple, lemon and strawberry.
"There were very few national brands," Riley said. "Their lifeblood was all their formulas."fox news

Turner Falls Take Two

Early AM at the Blue Hole. All these small mouth bass were oriented downstream and slightly in toward the bank they were near when I approached. The ones who are out of phase to the others moved only due to my presence.

Parasitic mistletoe infestation

Generations of hikers have referred to this rock as the Dragon's Tooth.

I was kidding about that last bit of lore but this really is Mormon Tea

Raccoons often eat on a log that has fallen over a creek. Their dooky then fills a rotted out knot hole. I'm not sure if this is intentional or just coincidence

Zac called this machete his big pocketknife

DPs made more delicious and nutritious by soaking in the creek overnight

View from the back porch

Zac begins his assault on the mountain behind the cabin. When he left he said, Dad, I'm going to climb the mountain behind the cabin. How many kids in the history of ever have said that?

His bid for the summit was thwarted by an injury. He booped his head on an overhang. Here he begins his descent free without ropes or support of any kind dispirited but not defeated. He will return next climbing season.

I think Mr Scuba Diver looked like more of a tool than he realized

Rat that did his macabre dance with death and met his demise in one of the water filled rock features. The water here is probably 2-3 feet deep and only discolored by the tannin from the leaves

Gravel pit cause by softer stone being swirled against harder stone over eons of time

Water skimmer skiing over Rat Fink's dead body

Yep, that is my boot as I traverse a very shaky cedar log over just nearly frozen water

I've mentioned that our south of the border friends had found TF. Spanish language graffiti  and food and drink garbage are everywhere.

I don't know what this is I found it near Honey Creek.

Sunset over a farm house on the way home. I think it was near Valley View

• OK, I'm reluctantly trying this again.
• There is a cactus splinter in my right pinky  that I had no idea was there until just now. 
• My vision is blurry and I have a bit of a headache and I don't know why. I've tried a warm, relaxing bath, counting to ten and counting my blessings in case it is a symptom of elevated BP to no avail.
• The cabin was OK. The biggest downside was the drunk couple next door doing it until the wee hours of the morning. I finally drowned her squeals out by turning the TV and ceiling fan on and turning the heater fan on high. Friend-girl slept through their antics so I gave her a play by play the next morning with a passable imitation of her sound effects. As you could guess we bumped into them everywhere we went the next day. He would turn red and mumble and she would look at everything but us and pull furiously at her cigarette and Keystone Light when we would see them and offer a greeting. I'm not sure if they just knew we had to hear their antics and after they sobered up were embarrassed or if they heard my interpretive reenactment of their escapades through the cabin wall the next morning.
• Another slight drawback- the satellite service had one usable station and eleventy billion channels of infomercials and cooking shows- ridiculous.
• I caught a crawdad. In it's torpid state I must have assumed I could get away with handling it lackadaisically  That is how the crayfish laughs at you man. It pinched the fire out of me. I jumped around in a circle hollering, Son of a ... and God... while Zac and friend-girl back away from me with their mouths hanging open looking at me like I was a crazy person. After a minute or two it drew up, lost it's color gasped a few times and seemed to expire. When I threw it back in the water after several seconds it came to and went about it's crawdad business. I don't know what mechanism causes that to happen but they do seem to rapidly expire when in a torpid state they're removed from cold water. I have seen it happen multiple times.
• We went to two areas I've never been before. An interesting thing I noted was how the nature of trails change the further way from the park proper we got. The trails seemed more rational- you may arguably take a step or two extra here and there but they were less strenuous and safer. They were obviously made by people who knew more about hiking than most of the visitors to the park.
• Me to friend-girl: Take your Keurig if you want. She: Really?! Me: Well, yeah, we'll be in a cabin miles from town and confidence is high we'll be wanting a cup of coffee in the morning. She: You're right that's a great idea! Want me to bring a toaster? Me: nothing but a blank, dumb look... She: Oh, uh- wow, where did that even come from? Is that the dumbest question you've ever been asked? Me: Nah, I've been asked lots of dumber questions lots of times. Why just last year a girl asked if she should pack an aquarium and two or three others have offered to bring vacuum cleaners.
• I must look competent in that environment, 2 or 3 people asked me directions or other questions.
• I can spot a veteran from a mile off and can usually tell very quickly if they were Army or Marines and if they were support or combat arms troops. The first time it happened if we hung out you would tell me I'm retarded and there is no way a person could know all that. Then I'd be proven correct enough times and you would understand it is just another one of my superpowers.
• Wish you were there. Thanks for reading. 

Mondays Missives

• Is it just me or does it seem like when you see a family portrait of American Mormons they're very often blond haired and blue eyed?


• I thoroughly enjoy the show Bones but, question why they think they have to make the genius scientist who can't relate to people seem nearly retarded to get the point across.


• If you had told me the gist of the series and read me a description of the cast of characters I would have bet the bosse(s) would be black.


• I can make a pretty decent pizza.


• Two words: Feta Cheese


• I haven't watched a single episode of X Files since Mulder got killed (or whatever) off the show.


• 100 years ago who would have guessed the mixture of caramel color,corn syrup carbonated water and various flavorings would be a multi billion dollar business?


• Yes, I'm drinking a Dr. Pepper as I write this.


• The choice of white trash everywhere.


• I've never made a loaf of bread.


• The people who sell products like Enzyte should be ashamed. It is impossible for that and similar products to work as intended and this will never change.


• Any product that preys on human pain and feelings of inadequacy and is known to absolutely not work as advertised bothers me and I would like to see more done to shut the same down.


• Protecting the public from such is one of the things in my opinion government can and should do well.

You Know You

have a substance abuse problem (regardless of substance) when you go to great lengths to insure said substance is always at hand.



Yes it's cold, full and ready to go and yes, that is the shower wall.

Monday's Missives

• The Cure- a musical taste literally from my childhood that I haven't outgrown. As a matter of fact the more time goes by- the more I love them.


• Joe Piscopo, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, The Cure and Iron Maiden. Five acts I've determined to see live before one of us dies.


• I think there's something wrong with me.


• The above pics are from a school auction selling off the dolls that the care of is supposed to make a child think twice before getting pregnant.


• Kind of creepy.


• It's 6:30 am- the baby is screaming and just knocked my delicious, cold Dr. Pepper over on to the carpet. And, "Good grief- what did he eat last night?" I said while changing his diaper this morning.


• He's the, Baby- I wish I had a do over.


• Recently had a graphic reminder: No Good Deed Will Go Unpunished.


• People


• Literally, do not know how some people can face themselves in the mirror in the morning.


• Sen. John Edwards for such a handsome devil has a thing for ugly women.


• Once a brother in law, father in law and myself helped a female family member move away from a very bad situation. One of the trucks we used was a flatbed which we stacked literally 12-14 feet high from the bed. The joke was of course it looked like The Beverly Hillbillies- The Wise County Edition. I brought out a rocking chair and was strapping it to the top of the whole mess when she saw me and begged us to not put it up there. We threatened to quit if she didn't let us put it up there for the ride to the new place.


• So mean.


• So funny.

Missives: Special Bonus Edition

Our ride for the zombie apocalypse- you get shotgun

• In the news: "Man bites off end of own penis. Police found him after receiving an anonymous tip"




• If I'm lyin' I'm dying- that's what it said.




• My present patient played golf well into her 80s.




• There's a line to a song that says," Cinnamon and sugary and softly spoken lies- you'll never know just how you look in other peoples eyes." The last part is so true and such a shame sometimes because the world might be a better place if we could every once in a while.




• The singers dad was MR. Peppermint.




• Zombie movies are making a big comeback and I couldn't be happier.




• I'm telling you- you'll be glad to know me when Hell is full and the dead walk the earth and I know exactly what to do.




• I could never have anything to do with a woman who wears open toe shoes and hose.

Wednesdays Digressions

• Been working so much have sort of been neglecting the blog and more or less phoning it in.


• If it's good enough for Deniro and Pacino...


• A lady at a nursing home where I was contracted at who was wheelchair bound and way too young to be thought of as the age for a traditional nursing home patient brought good cofffee to me in the room I was working in when she overheard me griping about the only available coffee being decaf.


• Humbling


• The amount of fruit and fresh vegetables consumed in my house in a week would measure at least several pounds.


• Don't give me too much credit- the Dr Pepper would be at least quarts.


• My baby sons latest thing is to carry a washcloth around for his comfy. Also, when I have set him down to make a cup for him he says,"Uh, uh" and pushes it away and won't take it until he's picked back up- to keep from being tricked into walking around under his own power.


• I'm working extra now for a motorhome- hopefully enough people are still scared of the fuel market I can still make out good on a decent older class C (or A if the miles and price are reasonable enough).


• Really hope to make some good memories.


• Money pit
• I know the picture doesn't follow any of my missives but, holy guacamole Batman- it's a cow that's been struck by lightning, that has to be worth something!

Fridays Digressions

• While placing my empty printer cartridge in the recycling envelope I noticed instruction #1) Place 1 or 2 empty HP inkjet cartridge(s) in this envelope without additional packaging, materials or notes.




• It's annoying sometimes to live in a world that requires that kind of instruction.



• Nearly everytime I go to into my children's bath after my son showers for school there's an empty Dr Pepper can on the side of the tub. Part of me says I raised him right something else tells me I've failed him.



• He'll be ok.



• I swear, the spaces between these thoughts comes randomly sometimes and if I go back and try to edit, it won't take and goes right back like it was when I publish.



• The Christmas tree is up and for I guess the 35th time (or whenever I saw it last) seeing it reminded me of the silver tinsel tree we had as a child that had a multi colored wheel that faced it and spun around by an electric motor casting red, blue orange and green? colors over that tacky tree. I can still hear it humming if I close my eyes.



• It malfunctioned and caught on fire once, no one was home- it's a wonder it didn't burn that old house down.



• Mom loved Christmas, I'd give anything if she had one more with us.



• When we were little some Christmas' dad would take us out to see the Kings family lights on Christmas eve while mom would stay at home and pretend she was going to bed to be ready for the big day. She would put all our presents out- some of which were stored at neighbors. We'd come home and the bottom of the tree would be overflowing. We still have a picture of my sister running for her presents- she is just a blur.



• The best part of the Kings lights was Santa fishing from a boat in the lake.

A Little Bit Of Heaven

Almost every time I hide a DP for a rainy day somebody finds it before I do only increasing the crushing disappointment of not having my favorite tasty beverage to savor. With this in mind imagine how my heart skipped a beat when I pushed a box of oatmeal to the side half heartedly looking and found this little treasure awaiting my consumption in the pantry! Thank you Doctor Pepper, wherever you are, I hope you received the Nobel Prize for your beverage endeavors while on this earth.