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Getting Fizzy With It - The Rise and Fall of the Soda Jerk · Dirt Nap City - History's Most Interesting Dead People

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Alex, how you doing, man?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Kelly, what's up, man?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm just sitting here thinking about things that we used to do in the past and don't really do anymore.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Are you familiar with those?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds like a dead end to me.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: It is a dead end, and I've got a great one for you today.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a matter of fact, um, it's something that you and I, unfortunately, it stopped before we were uh of age to really be a participant in it.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: But like our parents and our grandparents, they would have been really keen on this particular dead end.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been Oh, you're talking about hula hoops.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, you're close.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're close.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of maybe even a little older than that.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: This was a place where people would meet up.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um go go on dates together.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like if if there was gonna be a date, we would go to the um sock hop?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're getting closer, you're getting closer.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: After the sock hop, we'd meet for refreshments at the uh soda fountain.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Soda fountain.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Soda fountain.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not actually what I'm doing.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna talk about soda fountains.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the soda jerk.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna ask if this was uh leading into a soda jerk.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So so first of all, it's not it's not what you think it is.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a dance, it's not a form of self-pleasure, it's none of those things.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: A soda jerk was a person.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what do you know about soda jerks before I get into it?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: When I picture a soda jerk, I I picture like um, you know the movie It's a Wonderful Life?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And at the beginning where he's working in that uh the drugstore.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's right.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: You come in and they get they get uh I think they get ice cream or soda or something.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's from jerking the the little keg thing, right?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: The yeah, yeah, it was the motion where it comes up.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was the it was the motion, and and you know, um, I think it it's interesting about kegs and and you know, beer and soda and all those things.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think back in the day you actually had to pull on it.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was resistance and you pulled on it, and how hard you pulled on it was how much liquid would come out or how much of the syrup would come out.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um now today, like with a keg, you it's it's like on or off, right?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like you pull it and it snaps into place, it pours and then it snaps back.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I think before it it was more of a pulling motion.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think I remember growing up and I mean when I was too young to drink beer, but like I remember seeing that at parties that my parents would, and where you'd have to actually pull on something.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: So Yeah.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: But that wasn't soda.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, that was that was beer.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's talk for a minute about soda fountains, because you can't really talk about soda jerks without talking about soda fountains.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, do you kind of the the background on those?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Any idea why they got started, like what the what the um sort of trigger was for them to become popular?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm guessing that you know that was before canning and bottling of soft drinks, right?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: So you probably had to have um carbonated water and then some sort of flavor, flavor for it.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Am I on the right track there?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: You are on the right track.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: However, you're missing one crucial important part.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you said carbonated water.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Back in the day, uh many, many health experts, especially in the 1800s, thought that carbonated water was actually very good for you.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was medicinal.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: People found carbonated water to be medicinal.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: They also found leeches to be medicinal and you know, cocaine and lots of other stuff.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: But but isn't it true that it if you have it's better than contaminated water, right?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh there's a lot of things better than contaminated water.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean let's make a list.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, contaminated water is pretty low on the list.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: But uh no, carbonated water was seen as medicinal, and so that's actually where um why it ended up in pharmacies, because back then it wasn't something that was easy to come by, but pharmacists would actually create these health tonics using carbonated water, syrup, maybe a little caffeine, maybe some cocaine, you know, all of these kind of things were put into it.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now like Coca-Cola came out of a pharmacy, right?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, because of the cocaine.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Pepper, probably.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna talk about those in a few minutes.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: But so people would drink that as like uh health food?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was a health thing initially.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this was in the 1800s, right?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: The late 1800s.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: In the early 1900s, it kind of evolved.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think the whole idea that carbonated water, it was still better for you than contaminated water, yes, uh, you got that right.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: But but when you got into the you know, the early 1900s, mid-1900s, like getting into the 40s and 50s, people realized it wasn't really any more healthy than regular water, regular clean water.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, but they already had all these things set up in these drug stores.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they started adding syrups, um, they started adding um ice cream to the mix, they started adding all these kind of uh flavored things and started to attract customers.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And not only would it attract customers um to come in for that, but if you go into a store, it's kind of like why Costco has$1.50 hot dogs, right?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: You go there for the hot dog and you end up buying a hundred dollars worth of stuff immediately.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: I like float.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: You like a float?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love a float.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I love a float.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I actually like it better than a shake.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: I like a float better, but floats aren't as popular.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I just float right right now at uh Chick-fil-A, they have like uh you can get a couple of different kind of floats they're offering, but they also have a high a high sea float.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Does it sound good to you?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, I don't like high sea to begin with, and and so uh putting ice cream in it just sounds like it's gonna make it worse.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: I like a root beer float.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, root beer float is good, yeah.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now I've never had a Dr.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Pepper float.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: That would be good, I think.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: You think?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Probably would be because I I've had the Dr.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Pepper shake at Whataburger.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, those are tasty.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Really, really good, yeah.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, all a float is is you put a scoop of vanilla ice cream into a soda and that's pretty much it, right?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's gold though.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in 1901, Walgreens, and you know, you think about Walgreens in 2026, and I don't know when the last time you were in a Walgreens is, but they're pretty sad places generally, right?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh yeah.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, one person working there.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: One person working, and they're trying to sell everything under the sun, and they have a bad selection of a whole bunch of things.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, back in the day, Walgreens, especially in 1901 and in Chicago, they kind of opened what was the first modern, and by modern I mean, you know, mid-1900s soda fountain.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it had marble countertops, it had a person crisply dressed behind the counter.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And what was interesting with the hat, yeah, and the apron.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so this was going along and people were coming to it, but then what happened in the uh 1920s?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um the prohibition laws came on.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so we talked about that.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: People could yeah, yeah, listen to the prohibition episode.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: People couldn't just go drink at a bar anymore, you know, they had to go to speakeasies, but soda fountains kind of took over and replaced the bar as a place to meet during prohibition, it was a social thing.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like grown-ups, not just kids.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Grown-ups would meet there.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, of course, teenagers, they were big on that.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: But the other thing that was going on, interestingly, during Prohibition, is that doctors were prescribing whiskey as medicinal.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So loophole.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: So pharmacies could actually distribute certain amounts of whiskey if there was a prescription written for it.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so medical marijuana of the time.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, people would come in for their for their medical whiskey, and it was served from the soda fountain, you know, or might be given in little vials.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: But it was the same pharmacist that worked at the at the Walgreens where they had these soda fountains that was also put passing off the whiskey during prohibition.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So this just really made soda fountains explode.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: They got big, um, they expanded into ice cream and treats, and they kind of reached their height in the 1940s and the 1950s.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, going back to the original topic of this episode, the soda jerk, you're right, it was the the um the name came because they pulled these levers in order to dispense the sodas.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if you kind of think about a soda jerk, they were sort of the original barista, right?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: They they were not only making um not only making sodas for people, that sounds pretty easy, but they had a whole list of things that they would make for people, and they had to know how to make them all and make the um mixtures just right and all that, and do it all with a smile wearing a crisp white uniform.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: The actual title, Soda Jerk, now it's a play on words.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Can you guess what what uh the play on words is?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: What it originally was called and then became soda jerk?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: It rhymes.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, I can't.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was Soda Clerk.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it was the clerk behind the um counter.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Soda Clerk evolved into Soda Jerk because of the jerking motion.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh and I assume they were all men.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: They were mostly men, yes.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um they were boys, probably kids.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, actually, a soda jerk was a pretty uh prestigious job, at least for a younger person back in the day.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they could be kind of a local celebrity.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of soda jerks were known for um being able to mix the perfect this or the perfect that.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they had Was Dr.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Pepper one of them?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the some of the drinks they made back in the day.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I mean, was there a person?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Was there a person that went by the name of Dr.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Pepper?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Pepper?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: They had like they they had Doc picture that, like Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm Dr.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Dr.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Pepper.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: He'd have to be kind of a cool guy to carry that off in the 50s or the 40s, but um some of the drinks they dispensed, um, of course, a lot of people Mr.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Pibb.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Was there a Sprite?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Sprite.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really hoping you're telling me that some of the celebrity soda jerks of the day were Dr.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Pepper and Mr.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Pibb and a guy named Fanta.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh Zima, and uh, I guess Zima was alcoholic, but he was an alcoholic soda jerk.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: And someone named Tab.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Tab Skinny guy.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, my name is Fresca.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Nice to meet you.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: So the drinks they would make.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, I love it.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um they do the floats.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now they also did this thing called an egg cream.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard of an egg cream?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've heard of it, but I've never had one.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Any guess on what's in it?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's egg or cream in it.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: There is no egg in it.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: You are absolutely right.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And there is no cream.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: It is actually like cream soda?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's a milk with a chocolate syrup uh poured over a cold club soda or a seltzer and then mixed just right.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it's basically just chocolate milk with seltzer in it, but it it gets uh foamy and mixed up, and that fizz is kind of it's just creamy and fizzy and very refreshing.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what dirty soda is?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of a big thing right now.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: You want to explain it?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's very big in Utah.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it was it's it's big with the um LDS Mormon crowd.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and there's uh there's a place, I think it's called um Swig, that uh they have a bunch of uh restaurants, and there just tons of them in Utah.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: And basically, you pick your base, which is like your base soda, which would be like Dr.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Pepper or Dr.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Pepper, whatever.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then they either put cream or like a coconut uh syrup or like half and half or something like that in, and other flavors if you want them.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: They have all, but kind of like you're talking about these baristas or mixologist soda jerks, but they have them pre pre kind of pre-made.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: You say I'll have a number two or whatever, or they have little names like I'll have the rocket, and it might be like a big red, it might be big red, Mountain Dew, Coconut Cream, whatever.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, and they have tons of caffeine in them.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think it's the um Utah, it's how they it's how they get a little naughty.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it's in the name, right?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Dirty soda.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's funny you mentioned that.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yes, and the very first time I heard of it was May of 2025.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I remember exactly when is because I remember we were we had sold our house and we were at the closing, and at the mortgage company, you know, wherever the broker, whatever it's called, where you where you sign all the papers to sell your house, were there, and the they had a nice stocked refrigerator and snacks, you know, they treat you well, you're forking over quite a bit of money, or you're getting quite a bit of money, but they're making money too.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And they had these little containers with dirty soda things in it.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, they look like coffee creamers, they were just little shots of uh cream and like you said, coconut, uh cherry.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, what is this?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, those are for dirty sodas.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: What's a dirty soda?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: You put it like in a soda stream kind of thing?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: They had they had canned, they had canned sodas in a refrigerator, and then they had these little, they look like coffee uh creamers, you know, like the little cream, the little um uh Mr.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Coffee creamers that you get.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I got a Dr.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Pepper and I poured it, and and she was very encouraging, the the lady working there.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I poured it and then I poured the little creamer over it and tried it, and that was my first dirty soda.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Did you like it?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: I did, yeah, yeah.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't I don't know.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was a lot.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: The Dr.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Pepper's already pretty sweet and uh fizzy, and then you add the this really sweet cream to it, and it was it was a little overwhelming.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: We went to a swig when we were on our road trip this this summer and through Utah, and um, yeah, it was alright.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: I I wouldn't, I mean, it was I probably wouldn't go back.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I can see why people like them, I guess, but um, like you say, it's already a soda's already decadent enough for me.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, we sound to have a root beer float.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: You sound pretty old saying that well, a soda's good enough for my generation, these dang whipper snappers.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as I was saying before, a soda jerk, he could be locally famous, right?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Some of these guys were known for the best cherry coke or the best float or the best sundae.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it and they made ice creams too.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: They made banana splits, they made hot fudge sundays, all of that stuff was done at the soda fountain.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it it's kind of a shame because eventually they started to go out of style because of canned sodas, right?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't have to mix it there anymore.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Before that, there wasn't a way to have that carbonation unless it was carbonated water freshly put in the syrup.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: But now, now of course you can just go to your refrigerator and pop a can, right?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm not into?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: What?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Is is these uh contaminated water?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: These kiosks that were um where you can pick any any drink you want.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: They have those just Schlotsky.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's the best version of any of the drinks.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's it's it's what I said before.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is a lot of bad choices.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of choices, and none of them are good.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: I agree, I agree, because yeah.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, however, I was I was uh actually in a hospital not too long ago.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was I was doing some work there, and they had a machine that was a carbonated water with different flavors there, but it was not designed to be um like a soda, it was like lightning, kind of like kind of like a LaCroix, right?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, or or one of these ditch not ditch water, but what's the kind, you know, all those ones they have at HEB and such.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you put it in and you picked how like no carbonation, light carbonation, medium carbonation, heavy carbonation, and then you pick the flavor you wanted.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: You want lime, you want mint, you want lemon, and then you did the little thing, and it was amazing.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was absolutely and it's just using regular water to make all this stuff.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And they had it in a break room at the hospital, and the person we were working with took us in there and let us have some.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: I loved that.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, a couple of other things.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously, with these things going away, um, things have changed a lot.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, soft drinks, you mentioned earlier about Coca-Cola containing cocaine, which I think is true.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's actually a real thing.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um did you know that sodium or I'm sorry, did you know that 7 Up used to contain lithium?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yep, no, nobody likes seven up.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Did you know that?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe it's since they took the lithium out, right?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody liked it before.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: But seriously, outside of mixing it with um with alcohol, I think Sprite and Seven Up are the if you if that's all that's left.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you uh ever buy sodas for a party, you'll find those at the bottom.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Those are the ones you always end up with at the end.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Although those are I usually will choose a sprite over I don't like coke.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um I like Dr.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Pepper, but I don't like Coke, so I'll always go to the 7 up.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: And there are there's always 7 up in a in a cooler.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: If if it if and and you know what's nice about that is you can just keep using it for years and years for parties, right?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: The you buy a six-pack and someone might have had one in 2023, but nobody's had one since.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: So there's still five in your cooler for a 2026 party that came from You know what used to be big when we were kids, though, that you don't see much of is squirt.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Squirt.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, I didn't and mellow yellow, they were kind of the same thing, right?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: There's always two.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: No, mellow yellow is Mountain Dew.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's I think it's I thought it was squirt.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: No, squirt is grapefruit.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: And mellow yellow is like this, it's kind of like Mountain Dew, whatever flavor that is.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I used to drink a lot of Mountain Dew and Mellow.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't had any in like 40 years.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's about as bad for you in the soda world as you get, right?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: I really don't drink soda other than Dr.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Pepper.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm I it's funny you mentioned how bad how much you don't like Sprite though, because I actually had a Sprite recently and I thought it was really refreshing.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: I no, I say nobody likes I actually do like Sprite.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: I said nobody likes seven up.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell the difference?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: I said nobody likes um, you know what my son and I talk about a lot is the um the one that used to be called Sierra Mist.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's now starry.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah that nobody drinks that, but you it works perfectly paired with Taco Bell.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, because that's who the only place you really find it.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, if you have Taco Bell and you're drinking like a sprite, it doesn't taste right.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right, yeah, it makes the it makes the food taste strange.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's it has to be a starry.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I will say that Taco Bell really pushes the Mountain Dew, too.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you do a drive-thru, and it's been at least you know six hours since I've driven through.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, six uh six years since I've driven through, sorry, at a at a uh Taco Bell, but the the like the Mountain Dew, they're always pushing the Baja Mist Mountain Dew and the Baja Blast.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Baja Blast, yeah.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's one which is the strangest color.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Is that only a Taco Bell um invention?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Baja?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe maybe I I know because I take my uncle to KFC sometimes.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: I know KFC has their own uh flavor of Mountain Dew.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's like lemonade or uh no uh yellow lightning.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yellow lightning um Mountain Dew is at KFC.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's pretty awful.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I need to do next time I take him to KFC because he loves KFC, I need to get one of those yellow lightnings and drop a uh a dirty soda packet into it and see just how bad it is.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Be careful.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Don't try this at home.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so so you know, back back to the ingredients.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, ginger is actually um or at least used to be used in ginger ale, and it was supposed to quell nausea.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: So And ginger ale is not the same as ginger beer.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Correct, correct.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Ginger beer is ginger ale is more of a well, they're both kind of mixers.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like ginger beer, you use that in like a Moscow mule, I think, right?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well But ginger ale's good to for you have a queasy stomach.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, and it's supposed to be the ginger that helps, and then supposedly the sassafras in a root beer is supposed to be a remedy for STDs.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I read.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's such an old-fashioned thing, sassafras.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: And STD.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: You got the clap.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, Archie! I got the clap.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um so the word jerk, you know, we were talking about uh soda jerk.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, do you know where the word jerk actually comes from?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about the the most Motion, like to jerk something.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: There is a Middle English word, which is from the old English jerk, which meant active and sudden and sharp motion.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that is where jerk came from in modern English.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well in the 1930s, the American slang shifted it to to instead of um well it still meant jerk, like to to tug on something, but they started to use the terms jerk water and jerking off, and that's how those just became jerk.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if you call somebody a jerk, the original intent was that they were a wanker for all our English fans, British fans.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it I think it used to be more vulgar than it is now.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, today it just pretty pretty minor, pretty mild.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's like the what you would say uh uh the the soft way to call somebody an a-hole, right?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yeah.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Call them a jerk.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um but if you call him a jerk off.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Have you still never seen Home Alone, by the way?
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: I never had to be.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: We established this.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: We established this years ago.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people, you little jerk, there's a lot of that.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's cute.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a rascal, you know, calling somebody a rascal.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, obviously obviously the the word um also so it means you know the motion, it means the uh the type of person, the little rascal, but it can also mean meat.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: So there is uh charquai or charcai, which is South American, and it was actually this salted and dried meat, and it was originally made from llama, alpaca, or beef, and it was a stable in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, and that eventually is what became jerky in English.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: And of course we have jerk chicken, yep, that is like a Jamaican style of of uh barbecue.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: You you you rub a spice, you rub a jerk spice on it, and that jerk spice um so so do you know where that comes from?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: I actually have the answer.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: It has to do with the way they they pull the meat off the bone, they jerk the meat off the bone.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well that I love it.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: You love a jerk chicken.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: There is also a um a card game called the Soda Jerk Card Game.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if you wanted to actually you know try your hand at being a soda jerk, um, I'll read you the description.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can order this on Amazon.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Carefully manage your hand of cards to serve delicious beverages while being a jerk to others.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: So so you you try to serve beverages to your customers, but then you try to like spill stuff on the other players, and you do all this using cards.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then there is also a band on Bandcamp called Soda Jerk.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: I listened to them uh just last night, and I have to say they sound like a country fied version of the replacements.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: So if you like the replacements um with a country twang, then you've got Soda Jerk, and you can hear them on Bandcamp.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned about traveling to Swigs in uh in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, of course, some other famous soda fountains that are still open and still have soda jerks.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's one in um New York City called the Lexington Candy Shop, and it is an old school lunch counter with a real soda fountain, and guess what it's famous for?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Egg creams.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to have an egg cream and you're in New York City, you can go to the Lexington Candy Shop.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's also one in um uh Fredericksburg, Virginia, that is the oldest operating soda fountain in the U.S.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: called Gulric's.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's Gulric's Modern Pharmacy in uh Fredericksburg.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, nearer and dearer to us is the Dr.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Pepper Museum in Waco, Texas, where they still have a working soda fountain.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's cool.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so if you did want to get a Dr.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Pepper soda poured the old way, you could do it at the soda fountain in in uh Waco, Texas.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: They also will give you a Dublin Dr.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: Pepper over there.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not that's not Dublin, Ireland, is it?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: No, Dublin Dr.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Pepper made with real cane sugar.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Pure cane sugar, yeah.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like a Mexican Coke.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um none of this, none of this um uh corn syrup.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: High fructose corn syrup.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um tastes exactly the same to me.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Alex, as much as I've enjoyed uh soda jerking with you, uh we gotta go.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a fan of the show, hit us up.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: What's our email address?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: Not N-O-T at the little at sign that's over the number two on your keyboard.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh dirtnapcity.com.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh hit us up.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: We've got t-shirts now.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: We don't get her numbers.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: We really don't.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: We hired a person, we hired somebody to only read emails, and um we need to give her more work to do.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're paying her way too much to do nothing.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't want to be jerks about it, but we need more emails if we're gonna keep her on staff.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: What are you drinking there?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh a combination of hibiscus tea and it's it's like a um Arnold Palmer, but it came from a hippie salad shop that I went to.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really good.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you didn't even have a soda for the show.
• 27:35
  unknown: I did not.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, we're out.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: Clean white apron, name tag pin just right.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: Chrome counter shining neon sign out front tonight.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: Line out the doorway, kids with nickels in their fist.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: He flips that metal scoop, never drops a twist, he's not a jerk, he's a total jerk.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Make it roof and floats that work first dates, everyone's draw, he wings when they post smoke.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: Original barista of the corner store, he's not a jerk.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: He's a total jerk.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: He's counting cherry pumps like a chemist on the track of a hoop.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: Complicated rest of these, fold it's staying warm.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: He's reading from his notebook like a poet just rebound.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: He's not a jerk.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: He's not stolen, just oh yeah.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: Vanilla's one that kind of hurts to nervous teen teas.