I don’t know you or your home but, in this house, soda isn’t just soda. It’s preference, personality, and sometimes a little bit of stubbornness poured over ice. More times than not it shows up in my home. Come have a drink with us.
Coke shows up like the reliable one and Coke is the default in a lot of homes, and in ours it still has its place. My daughter, Suzanne, was a full-time Coca-Cola fan. No debate, no switching, no experimenting. If there’s Coke, that’s what she’s drinking, end of story. My sister is the same way—always Coke, always has been, no detours.
Then there was my mom who never even considered switching sides. For her, it was always Dr Pepper, and Coke didn’t even really enter the conversation. Growing up, it was glass bottles, cold from wherever they came from, and that was just how it was. That was the drink. No explanation needed.
My dad was… well, my dad. He treated Coke like it had a job to do. Cold, straight from a glass bottle, and if he was feeling nostalgic or a little extra, he’d drop peanuts right into the bottle and act like that was normal behavior for human beings.
As for my dad when it came to Dr Pepper, though, he didn’t trust it. He used to say Dr Pepper tasted like “cat pee or prunes,” which is still a sentence nobody has ever successfully explained. My dad always stuck with Coke like it was a contract he signed years ago and never revisited.
For me, I’ve always leaned Dr Pepper—especially cherry Dr Pepper when I can get it right. If it’s a good fountain mix, like from Sonic or Brahms or Dairy Queen, I’m not even looking at anything else. But I’ll admit it: cherry Coke has its moments too, especially when it comes out right, cold and slightly over the top in sweetness. I’m not rigid about it. I just know what I reach for most days. How about you?
Charlie is firmly in Dr Pepper territory, no hesitation there. Sometimes Big Red and even Pepsi even shows up in the rotation, and that’s a whole other conversation. Coke only enters the picture if everything else is gone, or if it’s already been opened and he’s not about to waste it.
My brother is harder to pin down these days. It’s mostly water now, or diet and zero sodas when he does indulge. Growing up, it was different, but life has a way of reshuffling those details until they’re not as easy to pull up anymore.
And then there are the places that hold all of this together. Sonic runs in the middle of the afternoon when happy hour hits and everything is suddenly half price. Cherry Dr Pepper for me, cherry lemonade or diet cherry lemonade for my mother-in-law, because she insists she “isn’t supposed to have it” and then orders it anyway. Brahms runs with my mom, where Dr Pepper is basically assumed before anyone even asks. Dairy Queen stops where nobody is overthinking anything, just ordering what they always order.
That’s what it really is here—not a debate, not a comparison, just a pattern. Coke people stay Coke people. Dr Pepper people don’t really switch sides. And somehow, even with all those differences, we still end up at the same table, same cooler, same stops, just with different cans in our hands.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
