make mine cheerwine

When I was a child my dad always seemed to have a bottle of Cheerwine between his legs as he drove us from place to place in his long-gone silver Chevette. Its red color startled me. My father is a preacher and his mother always went on aboout how red was Satan's color. And even though it was her favorite color, it was still Satan's too. Don't think that was ever resolved. How come a preacher man to be drinking something so sinful, so seductive, so potentially satanic? I ought to ask him someday. But now I think using Cheerwine in the communion cups instead of grape juice is a good idea. That red, you know, looks more like blood than grape juice. It's burgundy-red. Talking about communion could get me off on another tangent, food-realted of course, but not especially relevent to what I planned to write about just this moment.

My father's parents went to First Freewill Baptist Church in Erwin, Tennessee. I spent lots of weekends and summers with them, so I went to church there a lot. Even when there were no services I was there because my grandparents were custodians. All the communion "wine" and "bread" a.k.a. oyster crackers or some such, were left out for my eventual consumption as part of my grandparents' cleaning up. Grape juice was never my poison, but I could pack away those crackers. I've always liked the carbs.

But back to Cheerwine. I buy a bottle at a convenience store maybe once a year, just for old times sake, to revel in that feeling of riding shotgun in a silver Chevette with the window down and scenery passing by. It's good for road trips. It probably comes in diet. There's this thing called corn syrup that I'm against imbibing in any form so I limit my intake of the sody dope. If it was real pop like they make at a soda fountain, maybe. 

The news is this: Cheerwine is the original cherry soda and has been since 1917. They're redesigning their labels to compete against the up & comer sodas who sport "cherry" in their name. And who knew it happened in Salisbury, NC? That's just a skip along the road from Greensboro, where I regularly ate some of the best vegetarian food ever at the Exchange down by the university. At the Cheerwine website one can see the "red spread" or, whether Cheerwine is coming soon to a state near you. It's frighteningly reminiscent of that whole red state/blue state debacle. With all this recollecting, I might have to order a T-Shirt. I don't wear them. Or, since Father's Day is two short months away, Dad might like one. Or two. They're only $8 each. Pens, too!

Comments

[LLA]

I adore local soft-drinks and cheerwine is one of the better ones out there. Actually, I should clarify - I love the idea of regional soft drinks, but some of them are pretty darn terrible. Case in point, Dr. Enuf - shudder.

I remember that once or twice a year in elementary school, we would get to go on a field trip and you always had to bring a sack lunch. I remember that one of the best parts about taking yet another field trip to Bays Mountain was opening up your sack lunch and discovering that your mom had put a Cheerwine in it.

Although, even though Cheerwine is quite tasty - the LordGodKing of all regional softdrinks has to be Blenheim ginger Ale, of Dillon County, SC. Also home to South of the Border...

[bekka]

dr. enuf. i bypass it. have i tasted it? can't recall. maybe i did once, when i was very parched. and that was the reason why.

sack lunches at bays mountain... what a nice memory. cheese comes to mind for me. like some kind of potent american cheese on a sandwich mom packed for me. i don't think i ever got pop in my lunch.

i don't know Blenheim ginger Ale. and this Dillon County, SC sounds like a happening place.

about giner ale: thanks to my parents in law i'm in the know about Vernors. And i like it. i recently read Middlesex which is set in Detroit and vernors came up several times. lemme tell ya how good it is to be in the know and not be struggling for context.