Comments on: Hellfire, brimstone, and Mountain Dew

By: Tim Oliver

Tim Oliver — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:18:05 +0000

Mountain Dew, in those early days, ran a promotion that, if you bought a six pack, you got a “hillbilly hat”, and an imitation corncob pipe. My brother and I just had to have us one, and we mowed enough yards to make this so. Unfortunately, my brother got the last black hat in the store. All the rest were red. I hated that red hat that I bought with my hard-earned money ! Oh, the laughs I incited with that fool thing. My Uncle Curt took pity and gave me an old cream-colored felt fedora that was damn near the real thing, except he was a barber, and part time moonshiner from south Georgia, not a hillbilly.
He put my red hat on a scarecrow. Even the crows laughed at it !

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:33:18 +0000

I remember Fizzies, too. We couldn’t have those either! That alke-holic fizz! Of course we found ways to sample them. You’re right–nasty! But forbidden fruit is usually sweet, so we downed them.

By: Kip Burke

Kip Burke — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:49:44 +0000

My daddy, born in Montgomery in 1911, always called a bottle of Coca-Cola “a dope,” harking back to when it really contained coca derivatives. My mama did not approve of the inference, which only made it more tempting. But then she also bought us cola-flavored Fizzies, perhaps the nastiest-tasting drink ever concocted.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:13:50 +0000

I got addicted in the summer of 1988 at the pool. Still am addicted to the stuff (drinking one as I type). And I remember drinking it with my country cousins in the NC mountains all summer long as well. There is a big billboard n 85 I often notice as I travel between Atlanta and Watkinsville that says “Mountain Dew — Georgia’s Best Selling 20 oz Beverage.”

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:27:07 +0000

How well I remember when Mountain Dew first appeared! Not that we got to sample much of it, mind you. The Kentucky relatives who reared me weaned us on sweet tea that was of the consistency of 30 weight motor oil, but we were rarely allowed cokes–the name we called all carbonated drinks. My grandmother, in particular, informed by the best Missionary Baptist thinking the New Gasper Church could instill, insisted that any kind of beverage that foamed had to have some beer in it somewhere–not in her house–no sir! Of course, when our bachelor uncle let us ride to town with him, we always got some–and had to make an extra stop on the way home to sell the bottles back–concealing evidence and making a little change! Somewhere in the midst of that we discovered Mountain Dew. Ma went to her reward assuming she had kept us from that and a multitude of other sins.

By: Kip Burke

Kip Burke — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:38:20 +0000

You’re right Billy, I’m a sweet tea or black coffee guy myself — soft drinks now are just alchemists’ brews, not the co-colas of our youth. The nice thing about iced tea, I think, is the camouflage nature of its lovely color, able to hide anything from single malt to day-old moonshine. Or so I’ve heard.

And thanks for the welcome — I love this place. Myra Blackmon pointed me this way, just so you’ll know who to blame.

By: Billy Howard

Billy Howard — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:03:07 +0000

Thanks for the soda-pop road trip. I remember Mountain Dew was pretty cool when it first came out, but I can’t imagine drinking it, or any other soft drink now (unless, it’s the occasional ginger-ale, which of course is best served with a shot of bourbon. Now that’s something to Yah-HOO about!)