# Question About Soda or Pop for Older Folks **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 24, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-soda-or-pop-for-older-folks/565249 "2010-12-24T03:02:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-soda-or-pop-for-older-folks/565249/61 "2011-01-09T06:01:58Z")
> [@Mornac](#): > > I was born in 1958 and we only had pop when we were at other people’s homes. I’m from a rather large family though and I think it was more “cost-related” than anything. I remember my parents drinking coffee with all meals (and I mean during the meal – not afterwards). I seem to remember a lot of other adults doing the same thing. It came back to me recently while watching re-runs of the Dick VanDyke show. Rob and Laura are often seen drinking coffee during meals (above and beyond breakfast). I often have coffee with the meal if I’m not in the mood for soda and no alcohol is served. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-soda-or-pop-for-older-folks/565249/62 "2011-01-09T13:59:21Z")
> [@Mornac](#): > > I was born in 1958 and we only had pop when we were at other people’s homes. I’m from a rather large family though and I think it was more “cost-related” than anything. I remember my parents drinking coffee with all meals (and I mean during the meal – not afterwards). I seem to remember a lot of other adults doing the same thing. It came back to me recently while watching re-runs of the Dick VanDyke show. Rob and Laura are often seen drinking coffee during meals (above and beyond breakfast). Yeah, I think that drinking coffee, tea, or Kool-Aid/lemonade was quite cost related. All those drinks were pretty cheap compared to soda prices at the time. I remember back when restaurants would generally charge for refills of soda and coffee. In a lot of places, though, iced tea refills were free, AND the iced tea was cheaper than the soda…if the soda was a dollar, for instance, you’d get one glass of soda, but you could order iced tea with unlimited refills for 85 or 90 cents. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-soda-or-pop-for-older-folks/565249/63 "2011-01-10T23:04:03Z")
I was born in 1948. I never liked milk or kool-aid, so I guess I must have drunk water with meals. Every now and then the very special treat of freshly-brewed iced tea. Yum. At school, only milk was available, so that’s what you drank. It was very rare to have soda at home, but when we did, it was in tiny bottles- less than 12 ounces, I’m sure. As someone else said, everyone was skinny. You rarely saw an overweight person and even more rarely someone who was obese. I’m not saying there weren’t ANY, but when I look at my class pictures back over the years, we were just skinny kids. There wasn’t a lot of fast food or junk food- not like there is now- NO candy machines at school, and the dessert with the hot lunch might be pudding or cake or something, and a small piece at that. Also, we were VERY active as kids. We had three or four recesses during the school day and no electronics to keep us in the house after school. There wasn’t a lot to do in your room- read, draw, build models or something. To be kept indoors was a punishment. There wasn’t even a whole lot on TV, and anyway, your parents decided what station it would be on, and chances are it would be something sensible like some drama or news program. Now when I’m at a mall or at the community college I attend… EVERYONE is overweight! Plenty of spare tires. The skinny kids stand out because they are so rare. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-soda-or-pop-for-older-folks/565249/64 "2011-01-11T18:27:28Z")
I was born in 1960 and we got a six-pack of pop on Friday to split between five kids. I can’t remember what happened to the 6th bottle but it probably involved fighting, crying and someone getting dogpiled. We had milk with most meals and in-between had water or Kool Aid. As for diet sodas we usually had Diet Rite (with cyclamates). I remember it as being pretty good. Saccharin has always tasted bitter to me and aspartame doesn’t taste all that sweet to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-soda-or-pop-for-older-folks/565249.md?page=3)