KOOL-AID WAS COOL

I'm not sure why we didn't drink much soda in the day. Actually I called it Coke. When we asked if somebody wanted a soft drink or cola, we just asked if they'd like a Coke.

We weren't alone either. I never remember anyone saying, "Would you like a Pepsi?" Or a Ventnor's or an A&W. Back then there were no diet drinks or New Cokes or Coke Zeros. We did have Cherry Cokes but not in the bottle. That's right, there were no cans or plastic.

But good old Kool-Aid was there along with lemonade. I don't remember iced tea either. Sometimes my Mom would make hot tea, but I just don't remember people drinking iced tea. Water was actually what most drank. Bottled, of course. Yeah, right. We drank from the tap or spigot or garden hose.

And in our town it didn't taste bad at all. Until we thought we needed industry and built a huge lake 20 miles away. That's when I was thankful for bottled water. Rend Lake water was terrible. It had a smell sometimes, "when the lake turned over". Which was roughly six times a year. Other times it had a chemical taste. Sometimes even discoloration. I don't even think Kool-Aid could salvage that taste.

But I'm pretty sensitive to tasting in water or soft drinks. If it's not in a plastic bottle, I'll usually not buy it. A glass bottle would be the best, but that's hard, if not impossible, to find.

One more thing: the price. For a Coke or a package of Kool-Aid--10 cents. That's right. Mr. Easton who usually bought us Cokes after our baseball victories would pony up about $1.50 for the whole team Too bad they didn't hawk Kool-Aid. A big pitcher would have save him a half a dollar or so.