Pop or Soda?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Which is it in your world?

Pop

Soda

[Tom M King]

Doesn't exist.

[Bill Howatt]

While you will hear both in Canada, pop is by far the dominant one. My impression is soda is dominant in the US.

[Bill Dufour]

West coast is Soda. Coke and Pepsi headquarters are in the east.
Bill D

[Pat Germain]

West coast is Soda. Coke and Pepsi headquarters are in the east.
Bill D

I'm from Orange County, California. The whole time I was growing up it was, "Pop and beer".

[Barry McFadden]

Always been pop up here

[Derek Meyer]

We call it pop where I live. I had a friend in college who grew up in Missouri and called it soda.

There used to be a local place in Twin Falls, ID, that bottled their own. They were called The Popp Shopp. They had orange, grape, cola, lemon-lime and root beer. The drinks came in 12 ounce glass bottles, and you would take the empties back for a credit on the next case of 12. They closed in the mid 80's, when I wasn in high school.

[Barry McFadden]

We call it pop where I live. I had a friend in college who grew up in Missouri and called it soda.

There used to be a local place in Twin Falls, ID, that bottled their own. They were called The Popp Shopp. They had orange, grape, cola, lemon-lime and root beer. The drinks came in 12 ounce glass bottles, and you would take the empties back for a credit on the next case of 12. They closed in the mid 80's, when I wasn in high school.

Thanks for reminding me!!!! I always went to the Pop Shop up here years ago..... used to love the cream soda flavor

[Lisa Starr]

We had Mehler's Bottling here in Erie and it was pop.

[Stan Calow]

Soda here, although soda pop would pass without comment. In the south it's called "coke" no matter what brand or flavor. But there are actually maps you can find online that show the regional variation in what it's commonly called, although the many maps dont agree.

[Jim Koepke]

During my younger days, Coke was so prevalent, every soft drink was a coke, it just wasn't a cola.

Now, my soft drink of choice is usually flavored seltzer water.

jtk

[Jim Becker]

When I was at Penn State quite a few decades ago, we could easily tell whether someone was from the eastern or western ends of the state by what they called such beverages; soda to the east and pop to the west. To this day, I often refer to Pittsburgh as "the land of pop".

[Patty Hann]

In the military (doens't matter which service) you meet folks from all over the country, and even from US territories.
I heard the different names for "carbonated beverages" (no hard and fast rules, of course) .
Midwest (where I'm from), SODA
Northern middle states (MI, MN WI) POP
East coast: POP
South: COKE... yep all soda was called Coke; how you actually differentiated between, say a Pepsi and a Dr Pepper, I have no idea. Also a "Soda" meant an ice cream soda.
SW (where I am now)... because there are so many transplants/snowbirds here from other states and also Canada I hear SODA and POP about equally.

[Pat Germain]

In the military (doens't matter which service) you meet folks from all over the country, and even from US territories.

I had this experience when I moved to rural Oklahoma when I was in high school. If I said something, people did not hear it or did not understand it, they would say, "Do what?".

I was baffled by this and thought, "I wasn't suggesting you do anything".

Eventually, I figured out, "Do what?" was a local way of saying, "Sorry, I didn't get that".

When I enlisted in the Navy, oh yeah, major cultural differences!

[Dave Anderson NH]

Growing up in western NY state it was POP. In eastern New England it is SODA or in eastern Massachusetts sometimes TONIC.