A friend and I are biking downtown on a hot summer day and, stopping at a general store, I ask my friend if she would like a coke.
She answers, “Yeah, I would love a cold coke. I sure need something wet”
“Great” I reply “ what would you like?
Giving it some thought she answers, “Well let’s see now, I think I’ll have a 7-up.”
“Sir, my friend and I want cokes” I tell the storeowner.
“Fine, what will it be? He asks.
“She wants a 7-up and I want a big old Orange crush”, I tell him.
~~~~~
It made perfect sense to us Southerners. A coke meant the same thing as a soft drink. Believe me. It’s true .
It sounds funny to me now. Nowadays I use the term Soda Pop or just Soda when speaking of a soft drink. I also refer to it sometimes simply as a Pop. Some people just prefer calling it a soft drink.
Anyway, whatever floats your boat.
What’s the difference in a soft drink and a hard drink? The answer is alcohol. Add alcohol to a soft drink and it immediately turns hard. I don’t know how it turns but it does. I noticed hard lemonade being sold in the stores. I guess someone put some alcohol in the lemonade and it turned hard. I reckon, since lemonade is involved, it is a southern thing too.
Down South a hard drink is often simply referred to as a “drink”. When you come to my house, even to this day, and simply ask for a drink. I might reply, “sorry, but we don’t drink so I don’t have any alcohol in the house”. If it is water you want, you should say “drink of water”.
Now I reckon all this important southern stuff is boring to you but I just thought your mind should be clear just in case you ever dropped by the house and asked for a drink, soft drink, soda pop, soda, pop, or a coke.
All this writing has made me hungry. I’m closing now and leaving for the kitchen to make a peanut butter and plum jelly sandwich. Think I’ll have a soda pop too.
Copyright © 2011 Michael Hollingsworth All rights reserved
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