when we were in warren for the 4th, we took a quick stroll down main street. if i had squinted just a bit... not much would have changed over the last few decades. yet... behind the storefronts, few of the stores remain that i remember. that's sad to me. but i guess things change everywhere.
how fun it would be to hear the door chime and the floor boards creak as i walk into coleman's drugstore and pull a cream soda out of the chilled water... and maybe browse the model selection to find the latest hot rod to glue & paint... or to spin on the stools at rexall's and order a nickel 'suicide'.
sounds & sights that dance only among my brain cells now... and maybe even more now than they did back then. sometimes i wonder if much of heaven will be re-living the simplest of things in life... and delighting in them fully because we see each one as a gift from The One Who Always Loved Us.
of course... much of what i knew growing up would be strange to you. we each had different rides on "the scrambler"... subtle differences that live on today in small ways.
for instance... when you were in high school and you stopped in at your local place of refreshment... what did you order? for me... it was "a coke". of course, that didn't mean i wanted a coca-cola... that was just the intro that prodded the server to ask, "what kind of coke would you like?"... to which i would reply "seven-up", "pepsi" or whatever it was that i wanted.
but... living in florida, st. louis, & illinois it was "soda." and now in michigan it's "pop."
what term did you use? or today... when you want your son to stop by the store to pick up a 12 pack of some non-alcoholic drink for the gang who's coming over this weekend... what do you tell him to pick up?
having lived in so many places... now i just ask for what i want specifically.
i actually stumbled onto a website that shows the research some guy did that shows what we've all experienced. click on this link and it even allows you to click on your state and see how it breaks down by county!
although... it appears that my home county has changed since i was a kid... now preferring "pop" over "coke" as the name of choice.
or maybe i was always in the minority.
Hey Randy! The guy who did that map is a Campbell...probably related to you too!!
It was pop in Ontario and Ohio too. For the record, it'll always be pop to me!
I love you dear!
Posted by: Beth | July 10, 2008 at 11:05 AM
After moving from Peoria, we went to the grocery store. We looked and looked and looked. Where was the soda? Could it really be that this store in Indiana did not carry soda? Finally, Marty remembered that we call it pop in "our parts" of Indiana! We saw the sign for "pop" and found what we were looking for in a wierd sort of nook of this store. After living in 4 states, and 6 counties, this map is very interesting to me! Thanks for sharing the deeper things of life with us all!!
Posted by: Ruthann Longcor | July 11, 2008 at 12:03 AM
My daughter and son from Las Vegas call it "soda" I try to copy them BUT to me soda is a frothy drink with ice cream so my brain can't wrap around "soda". On the other hand I'm not crazy about the word "pop" so I try to name it.....
Posted by: Terry Younkin | July 11, 2008 at 09:37 AM
Being slightly anal, I have been brand specific when describing "soda" my whole life. As a kid I was afraid someone might slip me an RC (Canadian Pepsi...barf) instead of a real Pepsi. Also, being slightly into escapism, I really enjoyed this post as it caused me to drift into memoryland of going to BB's with my dad and ordering a doughnut and a green river (soda) and/or reaching into the fridge for a 16oz GLASS bottle of Pepsi. Nothing tasted better than that, except maybe the ice cold milk in the GLASS bottle sitting next to it. This could go on and on.
Posted by: Rick Lingenfelter | July 13, 2008 at 12:24 AM
Hey Randy! I've been so busy with the 2 upcoming weddings that I haven't been checking out your blog as regularly as before but am cathching up while I watch my Redbirds! Just wanted to tell you that I actually remember the first time I ordered a coke in STL and the waitress actually brought me a Coke! I wanted an Orange Crush! I was devastated! She didn't even bother to ask me what kind of coke I wanted!!!!!
Posted by: Judy | August 06, 2008 at 08:25 PM