Coca~Cola

Soft drinks were a big part of the ambiance of the 1960's. Around here, we just called them that--soft drinks. In other areas they were known as pop, soda or generically, after the most popular one, as Cokes. They only came in glass bottles, maybe three different sizes. You could buy cartons of six and then return the bottles later to be washed out and recycled. The corner grocery would actually give you a little money if you returned an empty bottle you found in the gutter! At amusement parks, they had metal racks for you to park your emptied bottles.

Cokes cost a dime for the classy, curvy bottle I considered just the right size. Fountain cokes at lunch counters were even better! There was no caffeine-free Coke, no Diet Coke, no Cherry Coke, no canned Coke, no Coke Zero. Not even Coke Classic. Or rather, ALL there was was Coke Classic!

Andy Warhol helped contribute to the concept of Coke as part of pop culture when he used the bottles in his art the way he had previously used soup cans.

All vintage ads are fun to look at but Coke has had more than its share of groovy print, radio and TV ads. Here are just a couple from 1966. Over the years it's cost me a few teeth and added more than a few pounds but Coca~Cola is still the Real Thing. In fact...I'm drinking one now.