Once in a while, I enjoy a carbonated beverage. I especially love a fountain Diet Coke with lots of ice when indulging in salty popcorn, pizza, or french fries. Who doesn’t?!

 May 8 is National Have A Coke Day! I’m celebrating by remembering all the bubbly drinks I drank as a kid when most of us could have cared less about the sugar content and ingredients. After all, that’s what childhood was all about, right? 

Growing up it was a real treat to drink pop, with permission to do so on special occasions. Dad had a small tabletop refrigerator in our garage where Mom kept all her glass bottles of Fago. Her favorite flavors were diet chocolate (yup..that’s right!), red pop, cream soda, and root beer. Of course, she poured me a sip or two into a cup when I asked. Cream soda was my favorite! Fago is still made in Detroit. Since Michigan is where she was born and raised, I’m sure that’s why she was loyal to the brand.

Remember Tab? It was the coolest and most popular brand I remember drinking in the 70s when diet pop was trending. I still recall the commercial when the glass shrunk in the middle emulating a thin-wasted girl. Just for kicks, click on this link to relive the “beautiful people” jingle! The lyrics will come right back to you!

Fresca was my Grandma’s number one pop of choice and I liked it too! She enjoyed it so much that she bought a Tiffany-style Fresca lamp over her basement bar table. My siblings, cousins and I thought it was so hip. Check out this interesting short article about when Fresca was born in 1967. It’s a fun read that I think you’ll enjoy!

My parents were friends with an older couple when we were growing up and occasionally invited all 7 of us to their house for a summer picnic. They always had cold cans of Shasta on hand. I remember choosing from flavors like grape, orange, lemon-lime, root beer, or cherry cola from their styrofoam cooler. I felt grown-up sitting on Mr. Barnes’s plastic lawn chairs sipping a cold pop straight from the can. That was a real treat to have a whole can to yourself! Because we’re celebrating pop, click here to see Shasta’s website. It’s fun and they even have seasonal recipes to try!

It’s funny how simply sipping a slurpy, burpy soda brings back great memories! Also, I love the fact that just getting permission to drink a pop was, in fact, a luxury as a kid. And my favorite, Diet Coke? It was born when I was in 8th grade and is aging well at 42 years old.

Even if you are a Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew. or 7up fan, break out your favorite bubbly on Wednesday, May 8. There’s nothing like the sound of a pull-tab and the fresh carbonation that’s hard to resist! Cheers! 

Sorry that my picture doesn’t reflect the brands in my story. We have a couple of old pop bottles that I occasionally use for vases that I thought I would put to use. Golden Age soda was made and bottled in Youngstown starting in 1914 and the company stopped production in 1988. These bottles came in handy for this post and I think they look really cute!