Recipe
1 (8 oz) container whipped topping ¾ cup cold Vernors ½ cup cold milk 1 package (0.8 oz) instant vanilla pudding 1 (9 in) graham cracker pie crust
In a large bowl, whisk the Vernors and pudding mix until thick, then whisk in milk. Fold in half the whipped cream then spread in graham cracker crust. Spread remaining whipped cream on top. Freeze for several hours.
History
Vernor's Saginaw Store
This week’s recipe focuses on an iconic Detroit product - Vernors Ginger Ale. To learn about the history of this drink and when Vernor’s became Vernors, this link will take you to the Detroit Historical Society’s website:
Vernors once had a unique, visible presence on East Genesee Avenue in Saginaw.
In August 1928, the Saginaw Courier, announced that 517 East Genesee Avenue, formerly the location of a millinery shop, had been acquired by the Vernor Company.*
Soon work started on constructing the new store and on April 28, 1929, the paper described the opening:
“New Vernor Store is Opened Saturday – The new Saginaw branch of the James Vernor Ginger Ale Co., of Detroit, at 517 Genesee avenue., was formerly opened yesterday, with James Vernor, Jr., president of the company, present. The building occupied by the company here for Its retail and wholesale trade in this vicinity was completely rebuilt at a cost said to be approximately $50,000. It is a three-story building, beautifully fitted and decorated In an Italian design. Clifford M. Wander, whose wife is a native of Saginaw, is the manager of the local branch, the seventh to be opened by the Vernor Company”
--Saginaw Daily News, April 28, 1929, page 6.
Descriptions and photographs of details taken at the time of demolition, suggest the interior was as elegant as the exterior. Tom Schmidt, a life-long resident of Saginaw, remembers the store. His most vivid memory is of the illuminated sign on the front – a lighted sign that gave the impression that that soda – more accurately Vernor’s Ginger Ale - was being poured into a glass. He remembers the interior: on the west wall was a long soda bar with stools. The only thing he remembers being featured on the menu is Vernor’s Ginger Ale.
The Vernor’s store – I like to call it a tasting room – only operated for about 15 years. By 1945, it is no longer listed in the city directories. However, the elegant limestone clad building remained a landmark on East Genesee for another fifty years.
On September 1, 1995, the Saginaw News announced that demolition had started on the former Vernors Building.
*The quandary of using the possessive or adding an “s” had not yet arisen. The firm was simply referred to by some variation of the Vernor Company.
In this c. 1990 photograph from the Library of Congress, the Vernor’s Store is the second building from the right – it is clad in limestone and a mansard-type roof.
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