Tuesday, February 7, 2012

What Do You Drink?

Write on Edge: RemembeREDThis week, we asked you to write, in 400 words or less, a memoir in which dialect or colloquialisms feature prominently


We grew up drinking "pop". No brand names, not cola, or root beer, or orange drink. Just "pop".

"Mom!  Can I have "pop"?"The answer from my mother, captain of the grammar police, was "sure you CAN, but you MAY not."

When company came by, "Would you like a "pop"?" It was easy, universal to my thinking.

Then I went to work in a restaurant that offered free refills.  It became awkward to guess which "pop" the customer was drinking. I was never comfortable with "would like more "pop?" I felt liking I was offering them a slap upside the head. Offering by brand name was great, if I'd brought them their first glass and had even the first clue what that was.

So I have found the best answer has been "would you like more "soda?" Which makes me self conscious every time I ask. I don't drink "soda". I drink "pop". I feel like I'm pretending sophistication. I mean, it's Indiana, don't we all drink "pop" here?

12 comments:

  1. I can't imagine it as anything but soda, unless it's tonic, but that's deep, old-school, blue-collar Bahstuhn right there--you don't hear it much anymore.

    Pop is a sound. Or someone's Dad in 1957.

    Regional speech is fascinating to me.

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    1. It really is fascinating. To me, soda is soda water. Period. And I vaguely remember visiting my grandparents in Tennessee, it was always RC. I'm not sure the last time I saw RC Cola.

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  2. Pop is we call my dad. So when I visit family and they offer pop to drink, I'm confused each time, without fail. 'Round here its always coke, even on the Pepsi menu. Servers always have to ask "Is Pepsi okay?"

    Anyway, great post. I like knowing how people adapt to situations like that.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by!

      Coke has become kind of common for cola orders. My restaurant serves Pepsi, we have to do that "is Pepsi okay" thing.
      And my dad was always Daddy.

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  3. This seems to be a burning (or maybe is that a fizzing?!) issue across the world! The mysterious issue of what on earth we call what we're drinking, maybe that's a sign that we shouldn't be drinking the stuff after all! Thanks for sharing your take on it. :)

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    1. Thanks for reading, and you're right, we probably shouldn't be drinking that stuff.
      As I sit here with my pop (Pepsi) at my side.

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  4. We always called it "pop" too! I'm from Pittsburgh.

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    1. Yay for Pittsburgh!

      Thanks for stopping by, glad to know I'm not alone in the "pop" drinking world.

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  5. I've never ever said pop for soda. There must be some divide somewhere in PA. I had relatives that said pop and some that didn't. Interesting. Enjoyed you post. Visiting a day late ;-)

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    1. No worries :-) I've been visiting here and there for about 3 days now.

      I'm not sure if the divide is geographical or maybe a social thing. The responses don't have a clear answer.

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  6. Oh, I say pop. I say it with great pride! POP POP POP.

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    1. Yay! Me too!

      Although I probably say COFFEE! most often.

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