Picture me as a young boy on a super hot Wilmington N.C. day standing in front of a large plate glass window of a small bottle producing factory, with one bottle after another after another being filled with the elixir of a boy’s life— otherwise known as Sundrop. It was a citrus beverage before Sprite and Mello Yellow and Mountain Dew. Prohibition in the 1920s hit N.C. hard, and so we devoted ourselves to inventing soft drinks as opposed to hard drinks. Pepsi (which is ‘is pep’ backwards) got it’s start in New Bern N.C. at a Soda fountain. Cheerwine, which is a delicious cherry soda got its start in Salisbury, and then there was Sundrop. Originally it had actual citrus in it, and you would shake it up to get the citrus off the bottom of the bottle. It was a cold refreshing soft drink with fruit in it. Today, sadly its only 1% real fruit juice. I blame the Texans for this, as Dr. Pepper of Waco and elsewhere in Texas bought the rights to Sundrop and then proceeded to strip it of its original character.
But back to that young boy drooling in front of the bottling plant on Princess St. just a few blocks closer to town that my grandparents house at 1319 Princess St. When North Carolinians go in for something, they go in for it whole hog (an appropriate metaphor for the premier pork barbecue state). To this day, N.C. is the number one state for consuming soft drinks, which is also one of the reasons we are high on the list of states battling obesity– at least now there are are diet drinks with less calories . The bottle above however contains a whopping 290 calories. Look out Mountain Dew we are coming for you in the calorie and caffeine count department.
One of the epiphanic moments in recent N.C. history was when Cheerwine and Krispy Kreme doughnuts of Winston Salem, had a brief summer courtship– imagine Cheerwine infused Krispy Kremes. Only in the southern part of heaven. Alas, the courtship didn’t last long.
I’m bringing this up, because what has happened most recently is the incredible proliferation of hard drinks– chiefly bourbon. I doubt there is any evidence of drinking soft drinks causing drunk driving, or regular accidents. And when they say ‘don’t drink and drive’ they are not referring to soft drinks. I’m just saying.
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