What Do You Call This Popular Beverage?

[Narmer]

When I was growing up in Kansas, it was "pop" - but everywhere I've lived since then, it's been "soda". So, for me, it's now "soda".

This is the way it is in Washington State. When I was growing up it was pop. And back then I remember the store signs saying "Pop". It was that way through the 90s. Then soda started creeping in. Chain stores used "Soda" in their signage. Now it seems all stores do. People used soda more in conversation, particularly younger people. Even family members switched. When I asked some they claimed they couldn't remember using pop. I now jokingly tell people I'm on a crusade to save the Washingtonian linguistic heritage by proudly using pop.

 

[jian]

A soda jerk is someone who gets too worked up over the correct use of the term “soda jerk”.

“I’m not a soda jerk, I’m a valve manifold operator!”

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This is the way it is in Washington State. When I was growing up it was pop. And back then I remember the store signs saying "Pop". It was that way through the 90s. Then soda started creeping in. Chain stores used "Soda" in their signage. Now it seems all stores do. People used soda more in conversation, particularly younger people. Even family members switched. When I asked some they claimed they couldn't remember using pop. I now jokingly tell people I'm on a crusade to save the Washingtonian linguistic heritage by proudly using pop.

Tangent: one of the bases Dad (and thus, our family) was stationed at in the 1970s was Fort Lewis, where I got hooked on Shasta. I seem to recall it being called “pop” back then.

 

[Clint_L]

I don't know what to tell you. It's a "soda fountain" because it dispenses "fountain soda"; sometimes also more broadly "fountain drinks", as occasionally they also dispense non-carbonated drinks like lemonade or Hi-C.

Bear with me here: is it possible that people in different places have different words for things? Spoiler: it is just as accurate to call it a "pop machine" - in fact, more accurate here, because if you told your kid to visit the soda fountain they wouldn't know what the hell you were talking about. They would probably imagine an actual fountain, but of coke or something.

It's almost like language evolves.

Me: "Nobody here uses the term "fountain" in that way and would be confused."
You: "Well, they're just WRONG."

 

[Mannahnin]

Bear with me here: is it possible that people in different places have different words for things? Spoiler: it is just as accurate to call it a "pop machine" - in fact, more accurate here, because if you told your kid to visit the soda fountain they wouldn't know what the hell you were talking about. They would probably imagine an actual fountain, but of coke or something.

It's almost like language evolves.

Me: "Nobody here uses the term "fountain" in that way and would be confused."
You: "Well, they're just WRONG."

I am deeply confused by this response.

It feels like another case of person A declaring person B ignorant and provincial because person B attests to the existence of terminology person A can't recall ever seeing used.

I never suggested that anyone is "wrong" to use the same term for both a drinks vending machine and a valve manifold drinks dispenser. I did suggest that using the same term could potentially cause confusion, with the intent to illustrate why some people do use distinct terms for these items. I also explicitly accounted for terminology varying by region. And talked about evolution of terms and some becoming (to the best of my knowledge) archaic, e.g. soda jerk.

 

[Narmer]

Tangent: one of the bases Dad (and thus, our family) was stationed at in the 1970s was Fort Lewis, where I got hooked on Shasta. I seem to recall it being called “pop” back then.

Shasta is still around. Not quite as ubiquitous as it was then. And I still love the grape.

 

[Redthistle]

When I was growing up in Minnesota, "soda pop" was a fairly common term, but it got shortened to "pop" by the time I was 20-30 years old.

What I still am bemused by is the tendency among some Wisconsin residents to refer to drinking fountains as "bubblers".

 

[Redthistle]

Assuming it's not Pepsi, I call it a Coke. Generally I just call drinks what they're called. Soda is something else entirely. Pop is just any sweet fizzy drink, and pretty much limited to the 1980s. Soda pop is like garage cake or wheelbarrow window, two different things just smashed together.

I would be incapable of ordering a drink in Oklahoma, clearly. Luckily, I don't imagine that's a problem which will ever affect me.

"Soda pop", as I understand it, derived from the chemical reaction of sodium to enable the effervescence of the beverage. Technically, that makes it the most specifically accurate of all the names we have, but when have we humans ever been satisfied with leaving things alone?

Well, at least until we get old enough to begin complaining about all the changes that are happening in the world compared to "the good old days".

 

[payn]

When I was growing up in Minnesota, "soda pop" was a fairly common term, but it got shortened to "pop" by the time I was 20-30 years old.

What I still am bemused by is the tendency among some Wisconsin residents to refer to drinking fountains as "bubblers".

No shortage of folks from the Midwest and TC specifically it seems around here.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

What I still am bemused by is the tendency among some Wisconsin residents to refer to drinking fountains as "bubblers".

That’s a good name, I like that.