Wouldn't You Like To Make A Pepper Too?

While watching TV tonight I saw one of the new Dr. Pepper commercials where they talk about the "23 flavors" in Dr. Pepper. Now, I don't drink soft drinks anymore, but back in the days when I did, more often than not, it was Dr. Pepper. Nothing tastes quite like an ice cold Dr. Pepper on a hot day. I used to down them by the six-pack of 16-oz bottles.

Anyway, this new ad campaign got me thinking about good ol' Dr. Pepper. When I was a kid the rumor of the day was that Dr. Pepper was carbonated prune juice. Now I never believed that, but I did think there was something a little "prunie" about the flavor, that was, until my family had to really make some cutbacks.

My family was not rich. Hell, we were not even middle-class; we were poor, but my Mom and Dad were so good at handling the little money they made that we never really noticed. They were always looking for a way to save money and one day they came across a store called The Pop Stop.

The Pop Stop sold soda, but they sold generic Pop Stop brand soda. They had a cola and a root beer, a creme soda and a lemon/lime, an orange and a grape and a strawberry and a cherry and it seemed like dozens of other flavors. You bought the stuff by the case and it was really, really cheap, like a tenth of the cost of regular soda. So, for a while, we drank Pop Stop soda at home to save on the pennies.

Now the only problem was, my brother Keith and I both liked Dr. Pepper and they didn't have a Dr. Pepper. I complained to my Mother about this, but my brother just told me not to worry. The next time we went to the Pop Stop Keith selected a six-pack of cherry cola and a six-pack of creme soda. I said, "Keith, we don't like cherry cola and I'm the only one who likes creme soda," but he said not to worry.

When we got home Keith said, "Watch this." He took a bottle of cherry cola and a bottle of creme soda and poured half of each into the same glass, mixing them together. "Taste it," he said, so I did.

"Son of a gun, it's Dr. Pepper!"

Given that experience growing up, I have a real hard time buying the 23 flavors ad campaign since equal parts of cherry cola and creme soda pretty much gets you Dr. Pepper.