When it comes to soft drinks, what is it we are drinking in Grand Junction, soda or pop?

I'm not sure if it's related to regions, age, race, sex or something else, but people in America clearly have two different ways to talk about carbonated beverages. It made me wonder what people in Grand Junction are drinking.

To get things started, I did an informal poll at the radio station and it was clearly divided. Seven people said soda, five said pop. Some felt very strongly about what they call it, while a couple of people struggled to nail down one specifically.

Personally, I am a soda person, but I haven't always been. I'm pretty sure when I was a kid growing up in eastern Colorado it was pop. I don't think I started saying soda until I got married and moved to Indiana. My vocabulary changed and I've been drinking soda ever since.

Some people (not me) are old enough to remember soda fountains in the drug store where they served up ice cream sundaes, malts, and sodas. The word soda has been around for a long time-but so has pop.

Carbonated soft drinks date back to the 18th century, and apparently, there was a need to distinguish them from "hard" alcoholic beverages so they were referred to as "soft" drinks. Aside from seeing the term on a restaurant menu, I don't hear many people calling their Coke a soft drink, but there are those who do.

So, the question goes out to the western Colorado community - what are you drinking? Or more specifically, what do you call what you are drinking?

Take the poll below and in a couple of weeks, I will report the results.

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