Nostalgia

image borrowed from Flickr

Anyone around here old enough to remember The Pop Shoppe? It was a wonderful slice of my childhood.... I would remember walking with mom and my brother into a store that was nothing but bottles of liquid goodness. You would pick up a 24 slot plastic tray at the front of the store, and then my brother and I would carefully select the flavors that were our allotted portion. Flavors were weighed and discarded.... lime? cream soda? root beer? ooh, maybe grape or orange or black cherry..... the rainbow colors of the sodas enticed and promised sweet and refreshing moments in our summer to come. With 30 flavors to pick from, the possibilities seemed endless......

We had to keep in mind that whatever we picked, there was no suddenly changing your mind and walking down the street to pick up a new flavor.... if you took a chance on a soda and didn't like it you were stuck with it.... not that I remember ever finding a "bad" flavor! The reason for this was that it was a good hour-and-a-half drive to Spokane, where the Pop Shoppe was located, and I admit that going to the "Big City" was a thrill in and of itself.

The Pop Shoppe was a Canadian based company that had its heyday in the 1970's, before closing up their shops in 1983, thanks mostly to Pepsi and Coca~Cola who were beginning to hit their stride.

When The Pop Shoppe went out of business it was a sad moment....

Why do I bring this up? Well, someone started it up again.... sorta. The flavors are limited, but are now available (in the same glass bottle, but you don't get to bring these ones back for a credit against your next purchase) at your local grocery. I was looking around the cold soda and bottled waters the other day, when I spotted the familiar bottles, looking a little out of place amongst the plastic bottles of Dr Pepper and Sprite. A wave of nostalgia came over me and I found myself tucking a Lime Rickey and Cream Soda into my cart. (Funny, but I don't remember the cream soda being cherry red, but a little online snooping confirms that yes, the original was a bright red....)

I admit that when I got to the cash register and discovered those little bottles were $1.19 each (ouch!) I had to firmly remind myself that it was a cheap price to pay for a moment of my childhood back. I took the bottles home and tucked them into the fridge for later (later turned out to be nearly 2 weeks later as they somehow were shifted behind the milk and I forgot all about them!)

I pulled out first one and then the other, debating on who I should drink first. Cream soda drew the short straw and while I managed to make it last by taking small sips I was surprised at just how delicious that soda was. The Lime Rickey turned out to be very good as well, but it was the cream soda that had me remembering long summer days, kicked out of doors by a mom who insisted that my all-day reading-in-the-house habit needed a break for fresh air and sunshine. (By the way mom..... I forgive you!) I would sit outside, breathing my prescribed dose of "country air" and enjoy my soda (this being the days where a soda was a rare treat.... not a daily requirement that my adult addictions have thrust upon me!)

So would I buy another? Maybe.... if I was feeling especially nostalgic. It was good enough for it... but glass bottles are a bit delicate to be lugging around in my lunchbox! There's a website for The Pop Shoppe in case you are interested... you can find it here.... it gives you a listing of where you can find their soda in your area!