COKE

COKE


I remember in the 1950's that Coca Cola had such a large percentage of the soft drink market that, in our area at least, Coke was like Kleenex. Every soft drink was a Coke. People would ask if you wanted a Coke meaning any brand or kind of soft drink. It wasn't until the 1960's, I think, that Pepsi Cola caught up with Coke.

I recall that there once was a controversy about Coca Cola putting their product in larger bottles. At one time, evidently, only 6 or 7 ounce bottles were available. Then these new 10 ounce bottles started to show up. We had friends where I lived, the Bollingers, who went to extremes to find and buy the small bottles. They swore the coke tasted better in the small bottles.

It wasn't long before 12 ounce bottles became the standard and now 16 ounce bottles have become commonplace (not to mention one and two liter behemoths). Everything keeps getting larger.

All bottles were glass at that time. Bottles are now most often made of plastic material. The old glass bottles, of course, required a bottle opener to open them. The twist-off cap is a relatively recent invention.

One summer, a kid my age from Nebraska visited my neighbor for the summer. I was amazed because he called soft drinks sodas. To me, a soda was something that you got at the drug store soda fountain. It was made of carbonated water, ice cream and flavoring. This colloquialism, soda, I later found, was not so uncommon.