<\/p>\n
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\u2019s life\u2014 otherwise known as Sundrop. It was a citrus beverage before Sprite and Mello Yellow and Mountain Dew.\u00a0 Prohibition in the 1920s hit N.C. hard, and so we devoted ourselves to inventing soft drinks as opposed to hard drinks.\u00a0 Pepsi (which is \u2018is pep\u2019 backwards) got it\u2019s start in New Bern N.C. at a Soda fountain.\u00a0 Cheerwine, which is a delicious cherry soda got its start in Salisbury, and then there was Sundrop.\u00a0 Originally it had actual citrus in it, and you would shake it up to get the citrus off the bottom of the bottle.\u00a0 It was a cold refreshing soft drink with fruit in it.\u00a0 Today, sadly its only 1% real fruit juice.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 \u00a0When North Carolinians go in for something, they go in for it whole hog (an appropriate metaphor for the premier pork barbecue state).\u00a0 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\u2013 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2013 imagine Cheerwine infused Krispy Kremes.\u00a0 Only in the southern part of heaven.\u00a0 Alas, the courtship didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m bringing this up, because what has happened most recently is the incredible proliferation of hard drinks\u2013 chiefly bourbon.\u00a0 I doubt there is any evidence of drinking soft drinks causing drunk driving, or regular accidents.\u00a0 And when they say \u2018don\u2019t drink and drive\u2019 they are not referring to soft drinks.\u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019m just saying.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s life\u2014 otherwise known as Sundrop. It was a citrus beverage before Sprite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":71834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15665,15668,15662],"class_list":["post-71966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-and-while-we-are-at-it","tag-less-gambling-call-out-the-vice-squad","tag-maybe-its-time-for-less-high-proof-alcohol"],"yoast_head":"\n