Drinking Coca-Cola, past, present, and future


I like Coca-Cola, and I've liked it since I was a kid. I can remember my mom trying to pawn off the store-brand cola on us kids, but we could tell the difference, even as little kids, and we wouldn't drink the stuff. My mom understood, and we had a 'frig in the basement that was always stocked with bottles of Coke - usually big ones.

When I ventured out into the cold, cruel world after I turned eighteen, I pondered whether I should go with Royal Crown ('cause what's good enough for other folks ain't good enough for me!), which I drank for a while, but I very quickly came back to Coke. To me, it was something that I knew that I would be able to get anywhere in the world. If life took me to foreign lands, there would be Coca-Cola. In a long life I've never had trouble getting a Coke, and no one has ever, ever, said "What's that?" Of course, there was the "New Coke" scare of 1985, but that went away quickly.

In my younger days, when I would walk around places like Los Angeles, I would stop in somewhere and get a Coke. There's never been a convenience store, or a grocery, that doesn't have Coke. I've been to restaurants that only serve Pepsi, and I'm OK with that, but only temporarily. I won't make a fuss and storm out, vowing to eat somewhere that serves food that may not be as good, as long as they serve a Coke!

I don't drink as much Coke as I used to, but I do have some every day. It's an indulgence that I hope that I'll always be able to enjoy, in moderation. I drink it in a very small glass, the way that they did back in 1922.

Image at the top of this post: Coca-Cola billboard in Asbury Park, New Jersey in 1922. Courtesy of the Duke University Libraries Digital Collections.
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Comments

  1. Cpt. CrankyFebruary 7, 2021 at 9:17 PM

    Many restaurants/diners carry only Pepsi products because it's less expensive than Coke.

    ReplyDelete

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