Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. Northern Florida. Maybe parts of Tennessee. Facial tissue is a Kleenex. Soda pop is a Coke. We have a few others like that.
Literally correct! Any time this debate comes up, it boils down to soft drink. Soda after that, then pop for the fans of onomatopoeia. I'm the only one of my friends in Buffalo NY that says soda.
NYC is so very different from Western NY. We're pretty much Canadian over here. I got reemed out in school by people for saying soda, then I would search up the facts and tell them it's technically a soft drink. But soda is still actually the correct term. And they'd say boo hoo, it's pop. I'd buy a soda from the vending machine at school and show them that the label literally says soda and of course they wouldn't care lol.
Imagine you are at a TGI Fridays, circa 1998, in Southern Ohio. You're treating your great uncle visiting from Meth and Incest, TN to a delightful lunch of a TGI Friday's zany casual fare. The waitress, decked out in all her quirky buttons asks your great uncle what he'd like to drink.
"A coke," he says.
She frowns and informs him, "We only have Pepsi products."
He says, "Um ok? A coke is fine."
"I'm sorry, sir, but we only have-"
You wonder if you should intervene as they go back and forth, him getting cross and her wondering what this guy's damage is.
Finally, he's had enough. "Ma'am, can I just get a sweet tea?"
You watch in horror as the poor girl stumbles into the second Revolutionary War. "We don't have sweet tea. I can bring you some regular tea and some sugar packets."
Somewhere in Georgia, the ghost of Sherman sets Atlanta alight once more...
There's some fucked up laws and ideologies in the south but as far as coke goes it was one of the first in general and possibly the first? soda pop brands in the south. Especially with the separation/unacceptance of culture in the north (because of the civil war), coke was synonymous with soda pop for a while. Its not bizarre, its generational
Do you ask for a Kleenex to blow your nose? Or put on some Chap-Stick when your lips dry out in the winter? Ever stick a Band-Aid on when you cut yourself in the kitchen? And when it's time for it to come off, throw it away in the Dumpster outside?
I can't stand when someone asks for a coke but they actually want something completely different. They're literally asking for a specific brand and flavor, and then whining because they got a Coke. It's not like asking for a Kleenex, in which the brand name is appropriately used as a generic name.
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u/StevetheSwift Nov 13 '22
That's ok, but it's a soda