Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for August 16, 2012

Soda? What’s that? I drink pop!

Right- I think soda is a southern phrase. Actually it is soda pop. To me a soda is something I used to get at a soda fountain in a drug store. Chocolate sodas were the best.

My other half lived in Ohio all his life and has always called it soda. I’ve lived in Ohio all my life and have always called it pop. Both our sets of grandparents were from the south.

unless you live inside Rte 128 in eastern Mass – aka Greater Boston – then it’s tonic.

In New Orleans, we call soft drinks “Coke”: “What kind of Coke do you want? Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite?”.And in some neighborhoods, they are called “cold drinks”: “You want a cold drink?”

Also called soft drinks. All forms are correct. In my house it was always “You want something to drink? we got coke, pepsi, something called Mountain Dew.”

And here’s something nobody mentioned, how much Soda/Pop did Arlo have? a twelvepack? back in those days six bucks could fill the fridge

http://i48.tinypic.com/34hcqbd.jpg

A map showing soft drink naming in the US.

Canadians prefer the genteel “soft drink”.

Ny is Soda Mass is tonic BTW did they ever finish construction on rte 128?

My grandparents called it “soft stuff”. Odd, because looking back I realize there was never any “hard Stuff” in the house.

Soda is not just a southern term. I’m from California and everyone I know calls it “soda.” You never really hear the term “pop” or even “soda pop”, although we know what they mean.

ScullyUFO: That’s because you are more likely to be offered hard stuff. Genteel has nothing to do with it; they can’t comprehend someone whose whole family is either teetotalers or alcoholics might have something genetic.

Does anybody else remember a song we learned in camp as kids? It’s sung in rounds: One bottle of pop, two bottles of pop, three bottles of pop, four bottles of pop. Five bottles of pop, six bottles of pop, seven bottles of pop, POP! Don’t put your trash in my trash can, my trash can, my trash can. Don’t put your trash in my trash can, my trash can’s full. Fish and chips and vinegar, vinegar, vinegar. Fish and chips and vinegar, vinegar, POP! The combination of the seemingly English “fish and chips” with “pop” leaves me with questions. I don’t recall ever hearing “pop”, as a term meaning soda, in any movie set in England. (Not to mention trash cans.) Could the song be from earlier New England? Oh well… I’ll probably never know. But it was fun to sing as we were roasting marshmallows over a campfire.

I grew up using “soda” and “pop” (or, more formally, “soft drinks”) interchangeably. But, then, my heritage is all mixed up. (Actually, too mixed up to outline here!!)

There was a short-lived TV series a little while back, “Detroit 187.” Earlier on in the series, a character asked for a “soda.” The producers must have been barraged with complaints about the lack of authenticity, because at the end of the show, one of the characters scolded another, that: It’s pop! No one here says soda! (Don’t remember the exact quote.) With that, the main character gave a nod of the head and a tip of the hat to Detroit as he exited.

Personally I prefer water.

I play on a game site called Pogo. The poll this week is what do you call that stuff. Currently it stands at: Soda 46%, Pop 23%, coke 18%, other 13% (but don’t say what).I’m one of the ones that uses Coke, no matter what. Probably because when I was a kid, Coke is all we had in the house.

Pogo poll?? I’ve been a member for many years and have never seen a poll, Saucy.

Here are the stats on the controversy.

In some parts of the south it is all Coke. As “You wanna RC Coca-Cola?”

Here in the Pittsburgh area, we call soft drinks pop.

doublepaw, I think the way they actually say it is “You wan’ a Cocola?”