Pop vs. Soda
 

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Randy

When I was in the military, a guy from Detroit would get really irratated with me for calling it a "pop".

Paul,

That's kinda funny....I grew up right outside of Detroit and called it "pop" the whole time I was growing up.

Joined the Marines and moved to So. Cal. and "learned" to call it "soda" and that's what it's been ever since.

Whenever I go back to Michigan, I get these strange looks whenever I ask for a soda.

Randy

It's Coke. Always will be.

It was always soda for me until I moved to Atlanta where anything is a Coke (even if it's a Pepsi). I never heard 'pop' until I ran into a girl down there who also went to the "show" which was a movie.

What do you call:
A. The wheeled thing you put your groceries in?
B. The carrying device you take them home in (not your car?)

I have to agree with Mark and VaSteve, it's all coke for me. What kind of coke do you want?

It was always pop here in Michigan. Then I visited my family in Binghamton, NY. There it was soda and even the use of the term pop elicited giggles and ridicule.

I was raised in Idaho, and called it Pop until I went to college in Maryland. I was so confused, what's this "Coke" stuff, and why does everyone laugh at me if I refer to a "can of pop"? Worse, I later moved to South Carolina, where I had numerous exchanges like this one with an arbitrary waitress:
"Honey, wudya wanta drink?"
"I'd like a Coke, please."
"What kahnd?"
"What kind? How about Coke?"
"We don't have Coke, how's Pepsi sound?"
"Um ... ok."

Has someone documented the BBQ line? It's the imaginary line on the map where BBQ goes from being a verb, to a noun.

Coke

my family in michigan would always call it pop, and i had no idea what the hell they were talking about until i was about 12 years old

it's soda ;)

how about a thread on hoagies vs grinders vs subs vs heroes

Po-boy :)

How about "Speedies"? Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Hey VAsteve...

Coke
Buggy
Paper or plastic bag?

Pittsburgh has the lead in calling things different. What the hell is "red up" the house? Sack or bag? Rubber band or gum band? The list is endless yuns.

In Michigan, people work for "Fords", not "Ford". I never heard "pop" called anything else until I moved to Florida, where it's "soda".

Spiedies are a great upstate NY creation -- and you gotta have 'em with salt potatoes!

The grocery conveyance is a "cart." Though when I moved to LI people called it a "trolley." I had WTF moments the first few times.

Having lived in Atlanta and Ann Arbor, I can attest to the confusion mentioned above.

JP

JP, did I spell it wrong? Is there any significance to the spiedies spelling? My mom is from Binghampton and makes them for us all the time:) Num Num! Lamb and pork skewered and served on buttered (damn can't remember the bread). Good stuff, can't remember her marinade either, but I know it's in there for a long time.

beef on whek (sp) ???

Cool... looks like it's pop in the midwest, soda in the northeast, and Coke in the south.

The Florida crackers will ask for a cold drink. That could mean an RC Cola, Orange or Grape Nehi (Sp) or sweet tea. moon pie optional I'm a Coke man. Craig

When asking for a pop or pop, you usually get smacked, or your father answers. If it's soda you want, you usually get double checked on what type of vodka with it. Asking for a cold one results in a beer.

Around here it's definitely 'soda'. Never call it 'pop' around here unless you're from out of town. Ask for a "Coke" and you'll get a cola from whatever vendor the establishment is currently buying soda mix from.

Also, we're probably the only place with 'bubblers'. (Water fountains)

They don't sell Pepsi south of Atlanta do they?

I've found that being multilingual has come in handy a lot. I can speak a number of different Southern languages, including Charleston, Backwoods Virginia, Savannah, and Georgia. I'm also pretty good at Boston, though the variance between the 5 burroughs of NYC still has me stymied. :)

Dan

Who researches this crap? On a government grant no doubt...damn Liberals.

(See I politicized it...)

Sorry.

I was born raised and live in teh midwest, frequent trips to the east taught me cool words like "soda" and "bubbler" and "wicked". Confuses the hell out of people here when I ask them if they want a soda.

"Jerk me a Soda" .....

Anyway I don't drink Soda Pop...Coke or anything else you'd like to call it....

Nor do i drink a "cold one" aka as Beer....


Now some Grain Alchol with rainwater....or Ice Tea straight up with a twist of Lemon.....or a Mornining latte....or how bout just plain ole Distilled Water.....

What kind of fancy dancy name can they come up for water?

melted snow not yellow, please.

I dont drink water. Fish f#$k in it :D

South -- Coke ( Atlanta is CokaCola HQ )


I've always said SODA..

Refrigerator or "ice box"

Maybe freezer or "ice box"?

Chiller or air conditioner?

Another favorite (you might have to go real regional for this): peanuts vs. "goobers."

I grew up in CT and now live in Eastern PA and it is soda in both areas...

If you go the Ritz Carlton they will ask, "Do you want bottled water or tap water."

As a kid in a then small Oregon timber town, early 1950's, similar to the one Ken Kesey wrote about in the novel "sometimes a great notion", we had families that came from all over the USA in our neighborhood. So, we just covered both bases..."soda pop" is what we, as kids, called it.

In Minnesota where I grew up, it's pop every time. When i moved to California, I had to get used to saying soda, (along with a lot of other regional words/phrases). Linguistics is very interesting to me, the way that changes by region and also by generation within the same region, ie. "icebox" becoming refrigerator, etc... :cool:

So in the south, when you want a Sprite you ask for a Coke?? :confused:

And what ever happened to Fresca? (Big in the '60s, along w/ Tab and Bubble Up). :cool:

My parents still drink Tab....there is a large liquor outlet in town that still stocks it.