To me, nothing was so refreshing as a Coke in a bottle, ice-cold out of those machines on a hot New Orleans summer day. Or, we’d go to the K&B Drugstore on the corner and get a Cherry Coke, delighting in that special treat from the soda fountain. This would be around 1960. I was a mere 9 years old, but to a kid on a limited allowance, a trip to the drugstore for that cherry Coke was mighty nice.

Remember the ads for Coca-Cola over the years: “The Pause that Refreshes.” “Things Go Better with Coke.” And, of course, that ’60s favorite: “Coke, It’s the Real Thing.” Remember when the New Christie Minstrels sang the song in that ad?

Some of you may be Pepsi fans. Some may have only imbibed RC Cola or Seven-Up or Dr. Pepper or Cheerwine. But for me, it was Coke.

I still love the drink, but prefer to get it with ice in a cup from a dispenser, rather than in cans. But since I don’t go to Wendy’s and McDonald’s anymore, they’d pretty much out. Bottled Coke is still good. Back in the 1970’s you knew you had graduated to Coca-Cola super-user status when all you bought at the store was four 36-ounce bottles in convenient, but heavy carton. Some even stocked up buying four or more cartons. You know who you are! Those were the days. Another glass of Coke as the night wore on and the conversation got deeper, denser, and even more animated.

But nowadays there’s a new version called “Coke Zero,” and I simply cannot tell the difference between that and regular sugar-sweetened Coke. In fact, it’s better. I buy a six-pack of 16.9 oz plastic bottles and try to make a bottle last two days. That’s the thing about soft drinks in general. I know they’re not good for me but… oh the memories, and, I re-iterate, the deep pleasure of an ice-cold Coke when I come in from a brisk walk on a hot afternoon, and have a hot dot and potato chips to go with it for my well-deserved snack.

And I’ve discovered the real secret of Cokes: it’s not just the taste, which is uniquely, even subliminally memory-inducing, but it’s that extra punch of added carbonization which Coca-Cola has always been famous for, at least it seemed that way to me. The old Nehi Grape Sodas and Orange Crush had that extra-fizzy kick, as I’m sure most of the others did, too, including Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and Mountain Dew, but to me Coke’s always been “the real thing.”

Magazine and billboard ads for Coke are American icons of popular culture and taste. They go back decades, to the teens and ’20s and earlier. It’s fascinating to see how they’ve evolved, much like covers on he old “Saturday Evening Post” during those same decades. I can see those happy faces on the people who populated the ads as they held up their bottles of Coke. That was the interesting thing about them. If you study the advertising, you see an ideal world portrayed. Everything and everybody is carefree. The smiles are just so nice and beaming that you wonder how something as humble as a Coke could produce such well being. (Many years ago, before the turn of the century, there were more plausible reasons for the smiles, considering certain ingredients that went into those first soda concoctions.)

I always loved seeing that familiar round red sign on general stores from bygone eras. And, who can forget Santa Claus with his Coke bottle and holiday greetings?

I recall when I bought my first Coca Cola weekly engagement calendar book, the first I had ever seen, full of illustrations from the print ads. It’s just a curiosity thing. Nostalgia, sure, but there is something so far off and lost in time about those ads that they really do seem rather unreal and would certainly be almost ludicrous if they were not so familiar and cherished.

Even in that more seemingly innocent decade, the 1950s, there was the Cold War and the nuclear bomb, civil rights abuses and segregation. Suburban sprawl was starting to take over. But in those Coke ads, the world was just a very pleasant place with no strife or unpleasantness.

I have good associations and pleasant memories of Coke, from my childhood up until the present. With the news the way it is now, with so much madness in the world, it’s nice to know that some things don’t change and that innocence is preserved in a sweet-tasting, carbonated drink.

Coca-Cola Memories and Recollections of “The Good Old Days” Part 1

Coca-Cola: Memories of good times in a more innocent age

The pause that refreshes

https://flic.kr/p/2nMvfLV

And

https://flic.kr/p/2nMxhRQ

Also, this vintage 32 oz bottle, fetching good money online

https://flic.kr/p/2nMxnF9