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I moved alot as a child; I drank pop. Somewhere along the line I switched to soda, maybe in Florida? Here in NY there's
a dividing line somewhere. Central NYers say soda. Western NYers say pop. When my daughter went to college in Fredonia, she couldn't find the soda aisle in the grocery store. That's because it was called pop.

. . . When my daughter went to college in Fredonia, she couldn't find the soda aisle in the grocery store. That's because it was called pop.

Fredonia? Oh, my first thought was of Freedonia!

It's "tonic" in my native Massachusetts and in parts of New Hampshire, but "soda" in Maine. Up here in the Pine Tree State, a tonic is an old-fashioned spring remedy. I think that's the case in Vermont as well.

en tha deep sauth ay tonic wile clane ya rate owt, way drank it ever sprang.

Kt

I grew up in and around Fayetteville, NC and we just called it a "drink". Water was "water", tea was "tea", coffee was "coffee" and soft drinks were "drinks" (or dranks). I suppose it was short for "soft drink" but, since you were a sinner if you drank hard drinks, that distinction was not widely needed.

In the South Texas of my youth we always said coke for any soft drink other than a doctor (Doctor Pepper - the native soft drink of Texas.) In my parents day any soft drink was a sodey-wawter. Now we frequently just say drinks since likker is forbidden in my circle of friends and family. I like Pepsi second to a Doctor Pepper. Cokes are from Atlanta and I have lived in Dallas for almost fifty years. As a child I favored a BIG-orng or a Deelawahr Punch. Whatever became of Delaware Punch? In my high-school days we didn't drink bottled soft drinks much. We were all addicted to salty limes.

By the way, I made a perfect Rebel score on the Rebel-Yankee Test - without cheating. I am a true son of the South. I am a genealogist and I have absolutely no Yankee ancestors. Maryland is a Southern state. One ancestor strayed into PA for a while because he was a Quaker but he couldn't take it up there. Did you ever eat scrapple? That is enough to drive a Southern boy back to the South for some buttered grits. Pardon me for straying from the subject. The above is all in fun.

What is scrapple? EWE! it's Pork, but well I like grits. I offered some to my daughter who was 8 at the time, she said her uncle told her she didn't like it, I bought some anyway and she tasted it and forever after she demanded grips!

Kt
I lived in the south for 8 or so years, but they say I can be forgiven for it, too bad PW isn't still here he's a "Brit curmudgeon living in Texas with his third wife" you'd love him.

. . . Maryland is a Southern state.

One need only look at a map to see why Maryland was never able to officially secede during the War Between the States. Would YOU let your capital city be surrounded by enemy territory without a fleet of C-47s to fly in supplies?

One ancestor strayed into PA for a while because he was a Quaker but he couldn't take it up there. Did you ever eat scrapple? That is enough to drive a Southern boy back to the South for some buttered grits.

Here all along I thought scrapple was southern because I had to import it to Massachsetts when I went to college, along with grits and hominy. Must be a Middle Atlantic thing. And it's a good thing, too. Scrapple and (scrambled) egg on a hard roll was a constant breakfast item for me at the SSA cafeteria lo these many years ago. I can't remember if the Denny's chain serves it, but I think the restaurant at the local Amish Market does, and I think our cafeteria at work serves it, although I don't eat breakfast there very often.

All this is making me hungry, and it's bedtime, not dinner time!

Pardon me for straying from the subject. The above is all in fun.

You aren't the first to go off-topic here, and you certainly won't be the last!

What is scrapple? EWE! it's Pork, but well I like grits.

Not just pork; a little cornmeal and every part of the pig except the squeal!

Not just pork; a little cornmeal and every part of the pig except the squeal!

there are parts of a pig I don't care to think of much less eat. Besides, and sorry to ruin your fun here but scientists have determined you can't separate the fat from the meat, the fat is intercellular; have you seen what pork does to a frying pan? I can't imagine having that in my arteries.

Kt
and It really doesn't matter if you think I'm nutty to not eat red meat.

. . . have you seen what pork does to a frying pan? I can't imagine having that in my arteries.

Kt
and It really doesn't matter if you think I'm nutty to not eat red meat.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I know you can cook with bacon grease but not sausage grease; the latter burns too easily. Of course, I don't cook with bacon grease these days, either; sadly, my bacon consumption these days is limited to whatever I get when I go out to dine, such as in a soup or salad, or those rare occasions when I go to an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet and have to strongly resist the temptation to eat my weight in bacon. Hey, if all those nitrates and nitrites preserve the bacon, they should preserve me as well, right?

mmm...bacon and lettuce and tomato sandwiches. Sin on whole wheat.

If you should suffer a burn when cooking the forbidden fruit on the sneak, Larry, try these...

-gailr

It's "tonic" in my native Massachusetts and in parts of New Hampshire, but "soda" in Maine. Up here in the Pine Tree State, a tonic is an old-fashioned spring remedy. I think that's the case in Vermont as well.

Ayup, It's called soda here in VT and tonic is definately an old fashioned remedy for what ails ya. For everything else bag balm works just fine

... and tonic is definately an old fashioned remedy for what ails ya. For everything else bag balm works just fine

What on earth is bag balm?

Andrew, consult this site and all will be revealed. If you don't raise livestock, I have also known people who use similar products to heal painfully chapped hands in states with long, cold, wet winters, or whose occupations are very hard on their hands.