I’m not here to preach, but I am convinced one of the best things I ever did for my health was give up soft drinks. Of course, we’re talking a real habit in my case, several cans a day or, worse, endless pours from two-liter bottles. All this was in addition to the drinks that came with all my numerous fast-food meals. I tapered off after a heart attack, and a few years ago I gave up sugary drinks altogether—and their sugar-free substitutes. This was in addition to many other dietary changes I was making, but it all seemed to work for me. On another topic, I grew up in the American south. A “Coke” was any cola-flavored drink: Coca-Cola, Royal Crown, Double Cola and, of course, when you could find one, Pepsi. The first time I traveled outside the south I was amazed at the proliferation of Pepsi machines and the dearth of Coca Cola machines. This may sound like a small thing to you, but it was a cultural ground tremor for me. I suppose it was thoughts such as this that led to the 1995 Sunday Arlo & Janis above.
The Secret Formula
By Jimmy Johnson
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85 responses to “The Secret Formula”
Never cared for peanuts in coke, but am familiar with the practice. And… I DO remember 5 cent soft drinks (just barely!)… and then 7 cents… and horrors! They went up to 10 cents! And Fizzies were fun… along with wax bottles filled with sweet liquid… candy cigarettes… cap pistols… and hitting the strip of “caps” with a rock and making them bang…
I’m tired of being an “adult” – I want to be a kid again!
Ah yes, those little cellophane packs of peanuts that was just enough to pour in a 6-ounce bottle of Coke. Love it!
And the afternoon snack with my grandfather of an RC cola and a Moon Pie. Gal, I’m with you-I want to be a kid again!!
Gal and Jean dear: Remember…growing older is mandatory; growing up is optional. 🙂
Good morning, all! This should give JJ a head full of nostalgic ideas for future strips from all we miss.
As a kid my grandparents raised me and they mostly did until I married, out in country far removed from much of anything. I lived in books a lot, gaining a vocabulary unlike most Delta kids. In my forays outside the Delta I had teachers of English who tried to teach me “Universal English” speech to eradicate the Southern Delta, so I don’t speak like anyone else from around there.
College continued that with speech and theater classes. My grandmother had been raised by parents who descended from the Carolinas and not long from the British Isles, but apparently my great grandfather taught including elocution.
Not all of us sound like Hollywood’s version of Southern speech! I use a lot of very old fashioned colloquialisms when I am not cursing furiously!
My black and white male feral cat just showed up. I had not seen him in ages. He used to be tamer but has reverted to the wild and I worry when he doesn’t show up for chow.
Love, Jackie
Young girl from South Mississippi traveled to NYC in the summer of ’72. Visited with friends living there that attended USM. At laundry with friend and decided I wanted a coke. Went across street to a deli and when I didn’t see a sign advertising Coca~Cola, I politely asked if they had Coke. I got the strangest looks from several people in the place. I then clarified and asked for Coca~Cola. The person behind the counter promply gave me 2. Later, as I relayed this to my friend, she told me that they thought I was asking for Cocaine!
My post vanished! Just when I was ready to send it! I am going to go get dressed, collect my mother and go out to breakfast so she doesn’t keep Mike from sleeping. He has staggered up and gone back to bed.
Love, Jackie
Jackie, accents do change, whether we try to change them or not. After five months of basic and technical training, I went home on leave en route to my first duty station. When my sister picked me up at the airport, the first thing she said to me was, “Oh no! You sound like a Yankee!”
Speaking of cursing, that’s something else my time in the service made me proficient in. I once had a short conversation with one of my sergeants and realized he had used the f-word or a variation thereof as noun, verb and adjective…in the same sentence. If the sentence had been a bit longer, I’m sure he would have managed to use it as an adverb, also.
In normal conversation, my speech is rather circumspect, which I’ve discovered lends quite an impact to the occasional profane word used for emphasis. And when alone, I find a hearty exclamation of “#*$@!” is an excellent way to blow off the steam caused by unintelligently buttocked drivers or those with insensitive gonads, as well as TV commentators who are so clueless that they probably have to not only have someone think for them but to dress them in the morning.
Folks here in Utah seem to think peanuts in a Coke to be a true oddity. Nuts are the reason I prefer the drink in a bottle.
Before reading these posts, I had never heard of peanuts in Coca-Cola. Isn’t there some danger of choking on a nut while drinking? And what happens to them when the drink is finished, do you eat them, or leave them in the bottle, or what? Do tell!
All these soft drink stories make me shake my head. Thank goodness, I’ve never gotten the soft drink habit. Drank those five cent glass bottles as a little girl, when I had the money — two or three times a week, in hot weather. Never bothered buying it when I grew up. You guys seem to enjoy it so much, and have such strong opinions on the many different kinds … makes for interesting reading, I’ll tell you! You know, it’s thought that drinking that stuff can bring on diabetes later in life; other health problems as well. Have you tried drinking milk instead?
which is because the woman class mates had been smoking an electric tobacco , often called a “vape pen.”
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age liquid.