Monday, September 17, 2012

Soda Pop


  
     Soda pop is a daily fixture in American life, but when I was a child it was a treat. I was raised in a middle-class home, but with six children and a modest, single income, my parents weren’t able to provide a lot of extras. We always had shoes on our feet, food on the table and presents under the Christmas tree, but a trip to McDonalds was rare. So was ice cream. I was envious of the huge round tubs of Neapolitan my cousins always seemed to have in their freezer. My father made a batch of his own root beer one year and bottled it in brown, recycled glass bottles. We had floats all summer long. Every sip of root beer I’ve had since, tastes like that summer.

     One year we took a road trip to visit my great aunt and uncle in Idaho. On the way, we spent a night in a motel. Mom and Dad slept in the double bed while the rest of us slept on the floor. It was an adventure. I'd never slept in a motel before. Next to the manager's office there was a vending machine with cold bottles of soda pop, and my dad let each of us buy one. Of all the memories I have from that trip, having a bottle of pop all to myself remains the most prominent.

     All these years later, plastic liters and aluminum cans of fizzy drink seem commonplace. I don't often drink the stuff, but occasionally I buy a soda in a glass bottle with a metal crown cap. I drink it cold, straight from the bottle, and it still feels like a luxury.



Soda Pop Song

Soda pop, soda pop
So so so soda pop
Soda pop, soda pop
So so so soda pop

I like my Ginger Ale
Root beer and Bubble Up
Pepsi really pours it on
Dr Pepper picks me up

Fresh up with 7 Up
Soda Squirt, Crush a pop
It hasta be Shasta
Red Bull will make you hop

Things go better with a
Can of fizzy soda
I’d like to buy the world
A Coke Coca-Cola

Soda pop, soda pop
So so so soda pop
Soda pop, soda pop
Sing sing a soda pop…

~ Nib of Nib's End ~



Silly Nib likes to sing this to the tune of the 1950's song Lollipop Lollipop or just rap it out like a pop star.

2 comments:

  1. I think you need to post more often. I have been waiting for your next story;) I don't remember getting a soda pop on that trip I think I was about 9 years old. It is nice to have siblings with better memories than your own.

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  2. I love this memory re-told in such a sweet way . Jim will too.

    We ( Jim & CT )had a taste test of the root beer you brought from your area, I must let you know the results sometime. I don't think any root beer will ever taste as good to you though as the precious soda bought on a special vacation that gave you your first night in a motel. ( sleeping on the floor no-less)

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