Coke Or Pepsi

For me it would be Coke. When I want a soda or pop I always choose Coca-Cola. When I was around 7-8 years old I had not had any soda so was not familiar with the taste. One hot summer when we kids were playing outdoors the local Coke bottle distributor came down the street and handed out Coke to us kids and put a 6 pack on each door step in the neighborhood. That was the very first soda I had tasted and it was ice cold on a hot sweaty day. It was a taste I did not forget as it was something to sit in the shade to enjoy each sip.

As a marketing strategy it was brilliant. I lived in a poor neighborhood (but we didn't know it at the time) and this was my very first Coke. Prior to that any flavored drink I had was Kool aid and not much of that. I have been a Coke drinker ever since. I don't have them that often but when I have a hankering for a soda infrequently it is Coke.

Today things would be different but 70 years ago not many companies would drive down a residential city street handing out free products. They gave us kids an ice cold Coke, put a six pack with a coupon for our next purchase with the six pack on each door step. That one Coke iced down on a hot sticky day in the middle of summer in the city had me hooked. What a brilliant marketing strategy that was.

Plus we could take the bottles to the grocery store for a refund as they re-used bottles back then. They would sterilize them and re-use them. I don't think we ever thought anything about that back then but now days there would be all kinds of controversy.  As I recall they used to imprint the year the bottle was made on the bottom and we would always look to see how old the bottle was. What is taken for granted now days used to be something very special back then. We don't have very many, or very often, hot sticky days here in the mountains but I am convinced when we do there is nothing like that ice cold Coke that quenches thirst.

Next to Coke my second choice was Nehi orange soda pop. We used to get those in vending machines at gas stations. I don't even know if they make Nehi now but that was second to Coke when it came from a ice chest at a gas station where we could sit outside and enjoy the drink.