This is a fantastic question, John and I am delighted you asked. I believe your initial inquiry was where and when this arbitrary diversion of terms for our beloved carbonated beverages originated and we will explore that as well. But I believe that it is equally, if not more important to Divine "what the fuck?".
My early childhood days were spent in Northern Ohio, near the banks of the Lake of Erie. If we went into a corner store or tavern or diner, my parents would order we children a "pop" - the local term for the caramel-colored variety of fizzy-drink, be it Coca-Cola, Pepsi or the regional favorite Royal Crown. This was most likely derived from the term "Soda Pop", which in turn must have gleaned its own moniker from the sound that was made when the spigots of the soda fountains from which they were drawn were opened, or the sound the bottle caps made when removed from the carbonated bottles. If we were having a clear soft drink, it was referred to as a "7-Up". This strange intermingling of the generic term "pop" and the brand name "7-Up" was a harbinger of soda things to come.
Sound confusing? Just wait.
When I moved to Arizona, later on in my childhood, I found that "pop" was called "soda". "Coke", of course was Coca Cola, or one could order a Pepsi. RC was left behind in the cloud of dust that made up the trail between Akron and Phoenix. I learned even later on that many folks (mostly in the South) referred to pop as "Coke", regardless of whether or not it was Coca Cola or one of its soda-pop competitors that was being poured.Visiting relatives in North Carolina, I was mildly confused when one of my cousins ordered a "Coke" and was given a Pepsi Cola. I pointed this out and she looked at me as if I had a third eye. An eye that obviously did not know its soda pop.
This is part of the fabric that has been woven the often-confused, distracted tapestry of my life and it's no wonder.
Enough of the "What the fuck". Let's get down to the "where and when the fuck". If you notice the map above, there is a clear line of delineation where the Northern "pop"-people and the Southern "Coke" -folk divide and I will attempt to make good, sound logical sense of the matter.
The soda fountain made its first appearance in 1819, a good 40 years before the Civil War. The first bottled fizzy was in 1835 and the term "pop" was coined in 1861, the year the Great War got underway.
It is my opinion that the entire geographical country referred to the soft drink as "soda pop" - at least for awhile. With the outbreak of the war, the North probably took claim to the "pop" portion of the name as an act of war and ran with it, while the Southerners either dismissed the term altogether in a definitive act of soft drink-defiance or the Northern blockade effectively removed the soft drink from the diet of the Southron altogether, thus nullifying the need for any descriptive whatsoever.
After the war, the Northerners most likely continued their smug use of the term "pop" - it was light, gay and carefree; they were winners. The people of the South, meanwhile, still smarting from their recent defeat, languished in reconstruction and probably threw their Johnny Reb caps in the air with the advent of Coca Cola in 1886, which actually contained the drug cocaine. The drink "was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass at soda fountains, which were popular in the United States at the time due to the belief that carbonated water was good for the health. It was claimed Coca-Cola cured many diseases, including morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache, and impotence." This according to Wikipedia.
Dulled by their dependance on the drink and the drug within, the Southern imbibers were undoubtedly dissatisfied with the non-narcotic soft drinks available and took to calling all soda "COKE", in a desparate attempt to get their hands on the miracle narcotic drink. Years of repetition and empty hope inevitably scorched this ideal into their brains, even long after the actual cocaine had been removed from the recipe.
The term "Soda" was pilfered shortly thereafter by the new kids on the block, the irreverant West, and is a keen example of their forward thinking, land-grabbing attitudes and innate sense of Western, land-grabbing entitlement. By claiming the lead word in the term "Soda Pop", the eternal optimism and free-wheeling nature of a land graced by God with endless sunshine and clear blue seas dug its tanned, muscular elbow into the rest of the war-ravaged nation. With their suddenly outdated "Pop" and "Coke", the North and South and even the Eastern seaboard were looked upon as uneducated, un-hip second-citizens of soda.
And so it remains.
Good day, Sir.
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