December 22, 2015 Advent with SusieJ

Shirley Temple

As the child of divorced parents in the 70s, I spent one evening every week out to dinner with my dad (and every third or fourth weekend). Because this was the 70s, we ate at many restaurants that offered snapper soup, surf and turf, a kid's menu of fried seafood, and a fully-stocked bar. My father's drink of choice was the Manhattan (my mother said he made a very good one), and mine was the Shirley Temple.

Afterwards, we'd browse in JC Penney or Sears, or hike one of the local parks, or learn BASIC on one of those new chiclet-keyboard computers. We probably had the only Monopoly game that reached stasis or balance, with both of us staying financially sound. In later years we'd walk his Schnoodle (Schnauzer-poodle), Barney.

  • 1-2 Tbs syrup from a jar of maraschino cherries
  • Ginger ale

Stir together in a cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry on a plastic sword. Serve with a flourish to the little girl who really shouldn't be sitting at the bar but her father's right there.

[Shirley Temple cocktail on the rocks; copyright 2015, Jorj Bauer, all rights reserved]