Blue Cola Blues: The Ups & Downs of Life and RC Cola
Back to where it started: a father’s trip to the far corner of a grocery store just so his kid can say they drank soda out of a glass bottle
The Kroger in Gassaway/Sutton (don’t ask, it’s complicated where one ends and the other begins), West Virginia of the mid-to-late 1980s had what current folks might think was quaint and odd. Truth be told, even by time the Cold War was ending, the little boxed-shaped pass-through window with a counter running through it was already archaic enough. By that point, the ritual of return was done as a traditional thing more than anything, so kids such as me could say they’ve participated. History holds still for no one, of course, least of which business practices that are not profitable. Thus, occasionally, my father had me take the glass bottled RC Cola case and put it on the little pass through to return it. While up the road in Sutton Elliot’s Fountain was still technically open, it was long past it’s dedicated drug store soda fountain days. For me it meant a milkshake that was a longer drive and different consistency than the two-windowed walk-up Dairy Queen shakes I was more accustomed to. I only got those because my primary babysitter worked the counter and hooked me up. As far as nostalgic soda pop goes, those RC Cola…
