I have heard of this having odd effects on people, but I don’t recall what it was supposed to do. In my father’s college yearbook from 1945 this is printed on one page of witty sayings:
“Coke and aspirin, they don’t mix. The effect’s the same as English 6.” So it was, I guess, well known back then. But what?
Second question: Was there really a class called English 6?
Back in my high school days in the Bronx in the1960s, it was supposed to be an aphrodisiac (for girls). If you wanted to “get lucky” you would drop a couple of aspirin in your date’s Coke. (I can’t say I knew anybody who ever actually tried it.)
Snopes say it was allegedl to have various effects, including aphrodesia, intoxication, or death.
6th period, English.
I would imagine that would be a reference to the combination supposedly knocking you out (since you would be dying from boredom if English was the last class of the day). I don’t think most works taught in high school English would make you horny.
There probably was. The convention that first year classes are 100 level and so on up is comparatively new.
I found a 1945 course catalog for Washington State U. There’s no English 6 but there are English 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 on page 196-7.
You didn’t have my high school english teacher, Ms. Keller.
I was taught by the Christian Brothers. Decidedly anti-aphrodisiac! And Tess of the D’Urbervilles would make you not want to have sex ever in your life.
I knew if I stayed on these boards long enough somebody would bring up the Coca Cola and aspirin story.
Now we just need some bananadine to smoke and we can really party! 
Just don’t start that nutmeg thing going again.
There was a time when coke-a-cola contained coca, and aspirin was considered a strong drug. But people have been inventing chemical excuses for naughty behavior since at least Ancient Greece. I do think the combination of acids might make your stomach hurt for a while if you took too much though.
The common pill Anacin, if I remember right, has aspirin, acetaminophen, and caffeine. Supposedly, the caffeine makes the painkillers work better. When I was a kid, the Anacin TV ads touted it for tension headaches, but you’d think the caffeine wouldn’t reduce tension.
I don’t think English 6 referred to 6th period English. This was a college yearbook. More like the sixth level of English in the program like Exapno_Mapcase wrote. It just seemed odd that by the time you had 5 previous English classes that it would not be more specialized, like 18th Century Lit.
Coke and aspirin were a pretty solid hangover antidote for me twenty years ago, though I must admit that neither cola nor any English class were ever involved.
English 6 would definitely be a specialized course. In that WSU catalog, Fundamentals of English is numbered 01. All the other courses are specialized. Presumably any of them could be part of one’s courseload to cater to your interests, without a hierarchy.
Yep, pretty sure caffeine has been clinically proven to work as an adjunct to some painkillers, accelerating their uptake or effect within the body
You may be thinking of Excedrin. Anacin has aspirin and caffeine but not acetaminophen.