I went to "Soup for You" for lunch today. It's a cute little soup/sandwich shop that's closes at 4pm each day, so I've never made it there before. It's been highly recommended by UMF folks as well as MRM and RBF. There was a long line when I got there. At one point in line you are standing next to a refrigerator case with drinks. I was so excited because they had ginger ale in there. It was a 20 oz. bottle and it was in there with Coke and Diet Coke and other soft drinks (sodas? pops? . . . ), including diet ginger ale. People in New England can't believe that we don't have ginger ale readily available (in vending machines, at restaurants, etc.) in Texas. For many years when I was young, you could only find it with the mixers (club soda, tonic, etc.). Later it made it to the soft drink aisle (or the coke aisle as we would call it in Texas because "coke" is the generic term for all soft drinks--"Would you like a coke?" "Why yes, thank you, I would." "What kind would you like?" "Dr. Pepper, please."). In the coke aisle, you'll only see it in cans and 2 liter bottles. In the mixers section, you'll see it in 1-liter bottles. And you would never see it in a vending machine, a convenience store, or a restaurant. In fact, a lot of bars don't carry it. But here in New England, it's as common as 7up.
I remember my first trip to Boston back in 1978, that was something that struck me even then. I was at The Coop (the bookstore cooperative) and they had ginger ale for sale in the snack bar there and I was a) in shock and b) elated.
