Want A Pop?
Pop, soda pop, soda or soft drink – they all mean the same. All of us remember the long, hot days of summer when there was no air conditioning to go into to get some relief from the ever-present heat. So, we got our relief from the ice cold treat of a cold soda. Some of us went “scavaging” bottles for their deposit value, which was usually two cents. Since the cost of a drink was a nickel, three bottles returned for deposit would get a fresh bit of cooling liquid and a piece of penny candy to boot.
The soft drink has been with us over 100 years. Coca-Cola was originally made with cocaine, thence its name. I can imagine why everyone loved it. It was touted as a cure-all. While it didn’t cure anything, you didn’t really care after drinking a Coke. It is said that it was a particular favorite with Queen Victoria of England. Alas, the good times were over when the government put a halt to anything made with a forbidden drug. Many of the most popular “soft drinks” of the day were victims of this new law.
I have tried to list every soft drink bottled in Salisbury, but I am sure there are others. Many are familiar to you; many are not, since they were produced for such a short time. To qualify, the bottle has to say “Salisbury, Md.” on it. There are many that were bottled by another bottler, so it is impossible to research the label. One of the hardest is Chuk-ker. It has on the bottle that it was bottled by the Chuk-ker Beverage Co., Salisbury, Md., but I have never seen any other reference to or listing for this company.
Mom used to make home-made pop-sickles for us with the Nehi soda, they were good.
ReplyDeleteahhh..rare to find now but I loved an RC Cola!
ReplyDeleteThanks George, once again you brought back memories of my childhood. My Granddad would save the bottles and when I would visit in the summertime we would walk them to the old country store down the road. There was just something about those old machines where you put in the money and either pulled out the soda or slide it out. It didnt' get much better and they were as cold as ice.
ReplyDeleteMy mom's favorite memories were of her poppop taking her to the store and getting her an ice cold orange soda (in the glass bottles) and a Moon Pie. All of this cost a total of 50 cents or less. We can see her become a little girl again when she talks about Lorraine's Sub shop in Laurel, De and the fries in a bag! They sure don't make them like that anymore!
ReplyDeletecountrygirl@heart
I used to enjoy the Nehi orange soda from time to time, when I could get one at a convenience store.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time, us kids would have Fizzies: ready-made soda pop from a glass of cold water and a flavored tablet.
My cousins would eat them "raw" but I preferred to use `em as they were intended -- in a glass of water!
Alas, Fizzies were no more after the banning of cyclamates in 1969. Those were the days (sigh).
How about Grapettes! I loved those bottles.
ReplyDeleteGeorge had been drinking Dr Pepper for many years , even until the end , one of the oldest drinks in America.
ReplyDeleteThanks again George for the memories. I would ride my bike with other farm boys until we found enough empty bottles to get full ones at the country store a couple miles from our farms. Sam
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