Susie and Pepsi

I was just reading a post on the PW blog. This woman makes me laugh. Plain and Simple. She mentioned something about her kidlings drinking half cans of soda left unguarded, I assume, by their owners. Of course this opened the flood gate to my memories as a child. One memory specifically jumped in the foreground of my brain.

My mom's sister, Sue, we called her Susie, was my favorite aunt of all times. I don't know what it was about her, but I could just "relate" to her. I could talk to her about anything.

She happened to be an avid Pepsi drinker. It was her morning coffee, her drink with breakfast, lunch and dinner. She drank it all day long. And, when she visited us, I got to walk to the store and buy her Pepsies for her. That was bc days (before cans). I always had to take the empties with me, because you got money for them. I know some of you young'ins would find that hard to believe, but we did. We even collected empties from around the neighborhood to turn in for penny candy. We were a resourceful lot, yes, we were.

Any how, back to my Aunt. She was always leaving her drinks sitting around, and of course, that just invited takers. Lickety split quick - because we would have gotten our tails whooped if we had gotten caught. As children we weren't allowed to have sodas very often, so we had to, there again, be resourceful.

AND I LOVED PEPSIES!

One particular day - no one was around. And there it sat. A Pepsi bottle with - oh - about two or so inches of Pepsi in it. I could NOT help myself. It called, very loudly, to me. I had to obey.
With one gigantic swig, down the Pepsi went.

Along with. . . . . . the cigarette butt that was in it. She, unfortunately, was a smoker too. And on that day chose to dispose of said butt in her unfinished drink.

Well, that cured me - johnny on the spot. I still think of that day when I drink Pepsi from a bottle - which is rare - since I rarely drink sodas anymore - and her - and how simple life seemed to be - and how complicated life seemed to be - and . . . . . never wanting to smoke - because it was gross, gross, gross!