Soda

It was Merril’s turn to choose a word from the dictionary.  Her fingers fell on “soda.”  I admit I thought that was a terrible word, but I really did not realize how much the word soda is used in products.
At its most basic it is a compound of sodium in common use.  I never realized how common.  Ones I realized I had heard of were baking soda (a bit more trivia – the first known use of the term was in 1838), bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), creaming soda, sodium nitrate and soda water.
Ones I had never heard were more popular in the US.  A soda fountain was a place for getting drinks and ice-creams as well normally personed by a soda jerk.  That term got my interest.  A soda jerk was a person who dispensed carbonated drinks and ice cream at a soda fountain.  News to me but from its use in sentences it reminds me of people’s fist jobs these days in McDonalds or Hungry Jacks.  It seems the term soda was commonly used in the US to define any sort of soft drink.
I had limited memories of soda and I know they were bad.  It was based on looking for water at a cricket field.  I felt like I was dying of thirst (I was a kid) and everything was closed and we came across a soft drink dispenser.  Thinking about the sort, I just have not seen one like it in years.  We managed to get a bottle out and I do remember thinking the drink was terrible.  It was soda water.  I cannot have been that thirsty if that is my chief memory.
But there are much better forms of soda as in “Creaming Soda.”  I really like that drink and I had not made the connecting at all.
I do remember having a blue and white packet at home of “Baking Soda.”  It seemed to be useful for everything.  I do remember using it as toothpaste when we ran out.  But then I do remember us willingly using other things to compensate when we ran out of the brand name product.
Still this soda thing.  I guess it is a part of life.  It is just in the background.  It seems to be one of the things that make life enjoyable.  Bit like chocolate or cake or good friends.  Just a part of the tapestry but a part of what makes being on this planet an enjoyable experience.  Not the major part.  But one of many small parts.