WITH ANNE CONTRERAS
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SFR: Tell me a little about the Madrid soda fountain and how you came to own it.
AC:
Well, the town of Madrid was owned for a long time by the Albuquerque & Cerrillos Coal Company and the company did a variety of things to give the miners and their families a sense of community. There was a Christmas extravaganza every year, a festival around July 4 and they also built the first electrified ballpark in the state of New Mexico. Along with all of those things, they also installed an ice cream fountain in the company store around 1934 or 1936. The fountain came from a company in Chicago called, I believe, the Liquid Carbonics Soda Fountain Company.
Sounds tasty.
Yeah, all those old-time soda fountain terms sound kind of poisonous [laughs]. But that's how the fountain was installed there and then the company shut down the mine and the town slowed down to nothing. The fountain was found again in the '70s and eventually was restored to working function in the early '80s in what was then the Madrid Country Store. The owners ran that for about 10 years and then when they retired-I already owned the building next door-we expanded into their building and took over running the ice cream fountain.
Were you successful?
The ice cream fountain did really well on the weekends. It was a blast. I was a soda jerk when I was a kid back in Massachusetts so I loved that sort of order it/make it/serve it food service.
So why did you decide to remove the fountain and sell the building?
Well, it's been 25 years since I've been in this area and I'm doing other things now and it's time to pass it on to new owners. But we've been unable to find anybody who is interested in taking on the ice cream fountain. It is, after all, a 75-year-old appliance that requires a lot of maintenance.
Are you surprised that there is some controversy over your decision to remove the fountain?
I don't think it's a controversy; I just think that some people want to acknowledge that it's too bad that the ice cream fountain has left town after it's been here so long. But we needed somebody to step up and take custody of it and there's an obligation attached to that.
You probably can't run down to Home Depot and find replacement parts for it.
No, you can't. We had to fabricate a lot of parts ourselves, which can make you feel really proud when you invent a part and it works. Otherwise, we ordered parts from a soda fountain company in Chicago.
Where is the fountain now?
It's taking up half the space in my garage. It was a two-car garage and now it's a one-car, one-soda fountain garage.
Did you get a lot of locals at the fountain or was it mostly tourists?
There aren't that many people in Madrid and the people that are there can only eat so much ice cream. The town can only support so many local cafés and coffee shops so we intentionally tried to focus a bit more on the tourist trade in order to complement the other local businesses.
What was your favorite part about running the ice cream fountain?
I really enjoyed it when I had the time to really clean the fountain, really buff it out and make it shine. It was also fun when people came in and I could tell them the history of the fountain…You know what else I loved doing? I loved making up names for ice cream sundaes and milkshakes. We had a great time making up the menus and deciding which flavors to do.
What was one of the flavors you came up with?
The Madrid Dusty Back Road was coffee ice cream, rocky road ice cream and malt powder. It'd have hot fudge on it if it was a Muddy Dusty Back Road.
So what's next for the Madrid ice cream fountain?
I keep thinking about calling up the company in Chicago that I bought all my spare parts from and asking them if they're interested in buying it but I'm still hopeful that somebody will show an interest in buying the building and running the fountain again. But if we get a buyer for the building that isn't interested in the ice cream fountain, I'm going to have to find it a new home.
Do you find it ironic that people who are sentimental about the fountain haven't offered any alternatives to removing it?
It's ironic that some people have expressed concerns that I exploited the fountain for all it was worth and then tossed it aside. The fact is, I've always had an appreciation for the history of it; if I didn't I wouldn't have done it for so many years. But I am encouraged that people in Madrid have a sense of the history of the town.
Does a different breed of person live in Madrid?
Absolutely. There are a few exceptions, but most people who live in Madrid don't want to answer to anybody. In Madrid there's an understanding that people mind their own business, in a good way. Nobody lives out here by accident and you can't stay out here successfully without making a conscious effort to do so.
