# Remember making 'suicide' drinks at the drink fountain as a youth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 17, 2023, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339 "2023-01-17T01:53:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/1 "2023-01-17T01:53:20Z")
I never could do it. But I watched my sibs and friends do it. Seemed daring and fun. I always wanted to try it. Today, after dialysis, me and Ivy went to the China buffet. Ivy drinks tea and lemonade mixed together. Reminded me of ‘suicide’ drinks. You put a little of every soda in your cup and drink it. So…I dared her we’d try alittle of every dish on the buffet. She was skeptical. She’s a safe eater. Only eats things she’s had before. I insisted. So she decided she’d ‘try’. That’s all I wanted. Well. I don’t think I changed her mind about anything. General Tso’s beef was too hot but she kinda liked it. She varied from chicken egg rolls to shrimp egg rolls and said they tasted the same. That was funny. What do you expect from a China buffet ran by a Hispanic family. Fun day! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/2 "2023-01-17T02:03:34Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I never could do it. But I watched my sibs and friends do it. Seemed daring and fun. I always wanted to try it. When I was 12, I saw a couple of pretty girls doing it, and so I did it, figuring I could casually agree with them when they’d surely notice me and strike up a conversation about everything we have in common. [/winces] ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/3 "2023-01-17T02:05:09Z")
The drink fountain mix is still a thing (or at least it was 10 years ago when my kids did it). We called it a Graveyard. And the mix of a little bit of every bottle from the parents’ liquor cabinet was a Car Wreck. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/4 "2023-01-17T02:10:01Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > You put a little of every soda in your cup and drink it. Oh hell yes! But our local drugstore didn’t have a self-serve fountain, so we would ask whoever was working behind the counter to make them. And they would usually oblige. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Ivy drinks tea and lemonade mixed together. That would be an [Arnold Palmer](https://www.thespruceeats.com/arnold-palmer-mocktail-recipe-760357). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/5 "2023-01-17T02:23:10Z")
Nowadays lots of fast-food joints and cafeterias have the self-serve everything fountain that can produce e.g., all 27 flavors of Coke, 10 flavors of diet Coke, 8 flavors of Coke Zero, and all their dozen-plus orange, lemon, and clear sodas to boot. If you’re _really_ daring you can stop at two places in the food court and half-fill your cup with all the Coke products, then move on to the next joint with the Pepsi universal vending machine and mix those in the same cup. Live dangerously: you’re only 12 once! ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/6 "2023-01-17T02:31:24Z")
I remember doing that at birthday parties and such. We called it a “weed killer.” ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/7 "2023-01-17T02:54:47Z")
We called that swamp water when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/8 "2023-01-17T02:59:08Z")
I did it, and loved it. My 11 year old will do it any chance he gets, doesn’t matter if it’s fountain drinks or slushies. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/9 "2023-01-17T03:08:43Z")
Funny, I’ve never even heard of this (frankly disgusting) idea before this thread. Is this something that was invented by kids only after self-serve soda dispensers came into existence? IOW, for those of you saying you did this as kids, how old are you now, or equivalently, what decade were you doing this stuff as a kid? ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/10 "2023-01-17T03:14:19Z")
Naw, when I was a kid they had soda vending machines with about four choices and a selector knob. You’d put in your quarter, the machine would drop a cup, and you’d work the knob back and forth as the cup was filled. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/11 "2023-01-17T03:14:52Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > IOW, for those of you saying you did this as kids, how old are you now, or equivalently, what decade were you doing this stuff as a kid? This would’ve been the ‘80s, for me: IIRC it was the cafeteria of a college campus (which, in those months, they apparently had no better use for than serving as a summer camp for nerdy kids). ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/12 "2023-01-17T03:15:37Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Live dangerously: you’re only 12 once! Speak for yourself, I plan to be 12 _twice_. Of course I have to wait for the Big Crunch to begin in 20-billion years (give or take a couple months). The universe will contract, time will reverse and I’ll pop back into existence, growing younger by the year, like Benjamin Button. Eventually I’ll be 12 again and probably quite thirsty what with having to walk backwards and all. I’m screwed if the universe keeps on expanding to the Big Freeze, however. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/13 "2023-01-17T03:18:00Z")
I did it occasionally but didn’t have a name for it. In college I would include a tiny bit of coffee and a teabag, but no matter how little coffee or Dr Pepper I put it, the end result would always taste like Dr Pepper flavored coffee. I legitimately like a 50/50 blend of a cola and lemon-lime drink: doesn’t matter if they’re Coke, Pepsi, 7 up or Sprite. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/14 "2023-01-17T03:18:51Z")
I remember my college girlfriend taking me to the local pizza place where she’d hung out as a teenager, in suburban St. Paul, MN (circa 1986); the menu listed all of their various soda flavors, which you could get by the glass or by the pitcher; it also listed a pitcher of “Suicide.” I’d never heard of that idea, and she had to explain it to me. (No, we did not get a pitcher of Suicide. 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/15 "2023-01-17T03:20:42Z")
The scales have been forcibly yanked from my eyes. I can see! Sounds pretty wacky but I can sure imagine a 10yo, or a drunk college kid, (I’ve been both though not simultaneously) trying this idea. Now? I’ll pass. Label me a closed-minded purist as you will. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/16 "2023-01-17T03:26:43Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Is this something that was invented by kids only after self-serve soda dispensers came into existence? Naw, our nerdy high-school D&D group was doing this with assorted off-brand soft drinks in 2 liter bottles at our wild-and-crazy gaming sessions. This would have been in the mid-late 70s. A Dungeon Master high on ginger ale mixed with root beer was a terrifying thing to behold. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/17 "2023-01-17T03:28:19Z")
When I was a kid doing it with friends, it was mainly a birthday party kind of thing, where there would be a variety of bottles of drinks to mix from. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/18 "2023-01-17T03:29:32Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Is this something that was invented by kids only after self-serve soda dispensers came into existence? My earlier post talked about how the counterperson at the local drugstore would make suicide drinks for use. You know, an early version of Dr. Kevorkian. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/19 "2023-01-17T03:51:05Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > What do you expect from a China buffet ran by a Hispanic family. Best Sushi I’ve had was made by two brothers from Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339/20 "2023-01-17T03:53:37Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Ivy drinks tea and lemonade mixed together. BTW, that combo (assuming it’s iced tea) is an “Arnold Palmer,” named after the golfer, who apparently liked that combination. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-making-suicide-drinks-at-the-drink-fountain-as-a-youth/978339.md?page=2)