Rural Retreat
Virginia
July 2014
We stay the night in Wytheville after our summit climb of the Old Dominion state, Virginia. First thing in the morning, we’re on the road to visit the nearby rural retreat called Rural Retreat, a town of 1500 living residents, and one dead resident in particular.
In the pursuit of knowledge, we ponder; Was there really a Dr Pepper? Was Dr Pepper’s real name “Pepper” and was he really a doctor? The answers are simple. Yes, yes and yes.
Is he really buried in a cemetery in Rural Retreat, Virginia, embodying the one-in-particular dead resident? Yes indeed. That’s why we’re here. Behold…
Charles Taylor Pepper was born a real person in Virginia. He became a real doctor and settled in Rural Retreat where he had his real medical practice.
Did Dr Pepper the real person invent Dr Pepper the soft drink? No, he did not.
In one story, Wade Morrison, a pharmacist in Rural Retreat did two things. First, he created a tasty soda fountain syrup that was a blend of 23 different flavors. Second, he fell in love with the real daughter of Dr Charles Taylor Pepper.
His 23-flavor concoction became quite popular in Rural Retreat and in a brazen act of brown-nosing, he named the drink after his heartthrob’s father.
Even still, Dr Pepper did not approve of young Morrison, the reason is lost to history. So Wade moved to Waco, Texas, pedaled his drink there and ended up marrying somebody else.
This popular story is likely a 100% load of hooey. Not real.
The likely real story goes like this. Wade Morrison was an aspiring pharmacist in Rural Retreat. Dr Pepper gave him his first break by hiring him. After some time, Morrison moved to Waco and opened Morrison’s Old Country Drug Store. One of his hires was a gentleman named Charles Alderton. It was Alderton who concocted the formula that became the popular fountain drink. Wade Morrison, in appreciation of Dr Pepper’s earlier favor of hiring him, named the drink Dr Pepper. Also, Dr Pepper sounded cool.
Sorry, no love story here, especially when we learn that Dr Pepper’s daughter was only eight years old when Morrison left Rural Retreat.
There are several other stories, all of them equally as unlikely as the first story here.
Lisa and I have found where Dr Pepper now lives, so to speak, buried in this cemetery at the southern end of Rural Retreat. A number of other Peppers are buried around here, reminiscent of the jingle.
Oh I’m a pepper
He’s a pepper
She’s a pepper,
We’re a pepper
Wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too!
—Dr Pepper carbonated beverage jingle, 1977–1983, lyrics written by, of all people, Barry Manilow
