<p>Soda (or specific brand–e.g., Diet Coke)
Female
50-something
New York state</p>
<p>I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., where I think we usually called it Coke (or at least until Tab came along).</p>
<p>The “S”: Kinda makes me feel better that other folk do the “possessive s” to place names. First time I heard it was my father-in-law when I was about 24. Really got under my skin at the time. He worked at “Delcos”. It was all I could do not to correct the poor guy! Funny, though - My mother-in-law worked for Kodak, and it was never “Kodaks”.</p>
<p>BTW - Upstate NY is always “pop”!</p>
<p>Wow, this thread has really taken off. I’ll tabulate and post the results Saturday or Sunday.
-Amy</p>
<p>Dadofsam,</p>
<p>Your story about the sack reminded me of my in-law’s confusion when I would tell my young D to put her hat on before leaving her grandparents’ home in the winter. They would get puzzled looks on their faces. My mother-in-law, when seeing me put a knitted object on the kid’s head, would exclaim, “Oh! she needs her cap.” Both my mother and father-in-law thought I was quite odd for referring to winter headgear as a hat. To them it was always a cap. I could never quite understand why they felt my use of the word hat was either strange or confusing. They grew up in rural Alabama. I lived in Louisville, then Lexington, KY. We now all live south of Cincinnati. My in-laws are the only people I know that think knitted headgear must be called caps.</p>
<p>Ohioan to Virginian waitress: What kind of pop do you have?</p>
<p>Virginian waitress to Ohioan (with a very perplexed look on her face): Oh…he’s a nice guy.</p>
<p>I live in CT…we call it soda.
I come from Ohio…where a soda has ice cream in it, and we call carbonated beverages “pop”. Whenever I go to Ohio and I order a soda, I get asked what kind of ice cream I want in it!</p>
<p>Dancersmom,
When I moved to the Midwest from the South, I discovered that in the Midwest a muffler is always something that goes on your car and a toboggan is always something you use to ride down a snowy hill. </p>
<p>Down South, those names can also describe things that go around your neck and on your head, and yes, they’re usually knitted. ;-)</p>
<p>Coke (then the required question, “What kind?”)
Texas
Female
48</p>
<p>This is actually a subject we discussed at a family get together up north where my son asked “what kind of Coke do you have?” and the answer was regular and diet. Then he asked, “but WHAT KIND of regular and diet?” The waiter was totally confused as was my son. Funny!</p>
<p>Lhasa,</p>
<p>In KY a muffler would be understood as a knitted thing to go around one’s neck, though we usually just call it a scarf. I’ll admit that a car part would certainly spring to mind first. No one would get the use of toboggan; it definitely is something to be ridden down a snowy hill, not something to be worn:)</p>
<p>In the Middle East, it is Soft Drink. Some kids say Pepsi to refer to all sorts of soda drinks because Pepsi is the drink of choice in the Middle East.</p>
<p>The real question is what do you call a milkshake? My husband from Boston calls it a frappe. His friends from Providence call it a cabinet, if you can believe that. I am from Pennsylvania and prefer milkshake.</p>
<p>On a related matter, I call it a hoagie (of course, I am from Philadelphia) and my husband calls it a sub. How about you?</p>
<p>a milkshake
a malt is something different ( chocolate malted)
a frappe is also something different( more like what starbucks sells)</p>
<p>Oh yes…the milkshake thing…</p>
<p>In the midwest a milkshake has ice cream. When I first came to New England a milkshake was literally milk shaken with flavoring…no ice cream. The one with the ice cream was a Frappe. Oh…malts don’t HAVE to be chocolate. I personally like vanilla malts, but I always have to tell the person how to make it. In New England it’s a grinder…in the mid atlantics it’s a hoagie…in the midwest it’s a sub. Go figure.</p>
<p>It’s a PO-BOY in New Orleans!</p>
<p>pop
Ohio
female
48</p>
<p>I had a friend from Pennsylvania when I was a kid who always called it “soda” and to us soda was what you ordered at a soda fountain with syrup and carbonated water. It sounded so strange to me.</p>
<p>In the South, tea is almost always cold and [very] sweet. It’s called Sweettea. </p>
<p>Now that folks have gotten so diet conscious, there’s also Un-sweettea.</p>
<p>In high school a friend came to visit me from New Jersey. She didn’t drink Sweettea. What she asked for everywhere we went was iced coffee.</p>
<p>Most places just said they didn’t have any, but in one restaurant the waitress asked how you make it. My friend said, “You pour coffee over ice cubes in a glass.”</p>
<p>They brought her a glass of ice and a cup of steaming hot coffee!</p>
<p>sodapop
L.A.
male
old</p>
<p>Folks were from the east and generally used the word soda but the kids grew up calling softdrinks soda or pop or most often sodapop.</p>
<p>soda
illinois/chicago
50 ish</p>
<p>now living in the South</p>
<p>When I first moved to the South, I was asked to bring the cokes to a large gathering. I said “Just cokes?” and the answer was “Yes, about four cases.”
So I brought four cases of Coca-Cola Classic. When people began asking “Where are all the cokes?” The answer was, “Ask her. She said she would bring them.” I was so confused. I still am. When a hostess offers me a coke and I want a Fresca or a Diet Coke, am I supposed to say yes and wait for her to say"What kind?" What if the hostess is also a transplant and is truly offering only Coca-Cola and I say, “Yes, I’d love a Fresca.”?</p>
<p>Soda
born and raised in mid-west
mid-Atlantic for 25 years
female
baby boomer</p>
<p>Pop
Northwest
Female
50</p>
<p>Sub-sandwich</p>
<p>Another one:</p>
<p>Purse or Pocketbook?
Purse here.</p>
<p>As interesting as the soft drink question is, I’m enjoying seeing everyone’s age! :)</p>