Howard Johnson is a name that the video game generation won’t recognize, but for those of us whose eyes were outside the car on family road trips his familiar orange-roofed restaurants were as ubiquitous as fake wood-grained station wagons.
Howard Deering Johnson was born in Boston in 1897 and raised in nearby Quincy, Mass. He dropped out of high school in 1921, and in 1925, he borrowed some money to buy a corner drugstore with a soda fountain, in town. Howard delved into the profitable ice cream trade, creating his own formula and eventually offering 28 flavors, which became popular at his store.
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(1) comment
Great history, thank you. Grew up with it, fried clams and orange soda.
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