Those Gen X drinks back in the day just hit different. If you’re a kid who grew up in the ’80s or early ’90s, you know what I mean.
I had a paper route starting age 12. Every afternoon, after school, I would deliver the Wakefield Daily Item to subscribers in my neighborhood of Greenwood. The Item was published daily, five days a week, and a weekly subscription for home delivery cost $1.65. Every Thursday, I would collect from my customers, and almost all of them would tip me. Some gave me $2 ($0.35 tip), others gave me $3 ($1.35 tip!) Usually, I’d clear about $30 in tips. $20 would go in the bank, and $10 would go in my pocket.
That’s a decent amount of walkin’ around money for a middle-schooler. And I spent a decent amount of it at the Greenwood Pharmacy. They had a Slush Puppie machine that we abused so egregiously (2 pumps in a medium? Try 5!) that they finally moved it behind the counter. Luckily, a Pump’n Pantry had recently opened on the other side of Main St., so my friends and I took our business there. Because their Slush Puppie machine was still ripe for misuse and abuse.
Gen X Drinks: Which One Did You Love as a Kid?
By the time I became a regular at Pump’n Pantry, I had graduated to more mature libations. What was better back in the day than walking around town with an IBC Root Beer? It looked like you were drinking an *actual* beer! And remember OK Soda? The quintessential Gen-X soft drink. Those two are in the mix for this week’s 12-Inch Poll, alongside a bunch of other throwback beverages. Refresh yourself with a selection of back-in-the-day refreshments, vote for your favorite, then hit the ROCK 92.9 Facebook or Twitter to shout out any others I might have missed.
