"Hey ya'll Southerners shou'nt mack fun o' dem northerners the way day talk."

     Sorry, I had to use a little colloquialism to get my point across.  I am a Northerner, better known down south as a "Yankee".  I used to get acousted for the words I used when visiting our southern friends. For example, up north, we drink "Pop". Down south, they call that "Soda" or "Soda Water".  I figure, "Who cares what it's called, as long as it clears the throat and refreshes."  But that don't stop some from rubbing in the differences. "Pop is a sound, and ye can't drink a sound!"

     Then one day, we visited an antique store and found a genuine pop bottle. The attached note said it was used in India for lemonade. The bottling company pressurized the drink and put a marble in the mouth of the bottle to seal it up.  When you pushed the marble in, the pressure released and created a "Pop" sound. A built-in catch in the neck prevented the marble from rolling back to the opening and cutting off the flow.  According to the attached paper, many bottles did not survive the onslaught of children desirous of adding the marbles to their collections.  They broke the bottles in order to retrieve the marbles.

     So you see, a reason for calling soda water "pop" does exist.  Now, what if my bottle is a fake, and some Southern Reb planted them in northern antique shops just to make people like me look ridiculous?   Maybe, but not likely. 

- Norman