Thursday, December 24, 2009
3:06 PM
Cragmont Sodas
Obviously only one of these is a Cragmont soda. This is the only good, clear pic I could find of the Cragmont Root Beer, which was one of my two favorites though I loved most all of them except raspberry and cream soda.
We were always name-brand pop people when I was growing up. My mom and brother drank Coca Cola daily and with almost every meal. (Thank you, God for a mom who didn't insist we drink milk and orange juice, blech!) For the first 5 or 6 years of my life, I predominantly drank Coca Cola as well though I occasionally drank some other pops, as well. Strawberry, Organge, and Grape Crush were some of my very favorites. It wasn't always available at the store so we couldn't always count on finding it on the shelves when we visited the grocery store. My mom always somehow found a way to get her hands on some when I was sick, though. Strawberry Crush was my special "sick treat" and I always felt very warm and loved whenever my mom would pour it over ice and give it to me when I wasn't feeling well.
I have also ALWAYS loved and drank A&W Root Beer though growing up, we didn't often keep it in the house. I mostly drank it when we visited the restaurant. (That has changed today)
However, the once exception to my "name brand pop only" rule was the inexpensive Safeway generic Cragmont brand. It wasn't as good as the name brand pop but it was pretty good, just the same and it was available in several different flavors. It only cost about 7-10 cents per can so my mom would not only allow me to buy several cans, but she would also allow me to experiment with new flavors, etc. figuring that if I didn't like one of them, it wouldn't be a huge waste of money.
For some reason, my friend Lynn and I loved to drink Cragmont pop in the summer and that's just about the only time we asked our moms to stock up on that brand. I have fond memories of going to the grocery store with my mom and being allowed to get a big box and pick out 24 cans of any flavor combinations I wanted. I thought that was a very big deal and I had a ball filling the large box with cans of multi-flavored cans of pop. You could always tell summer had officially arrived by looking inside of our fridge because one whole side of it was packed with Cragmont pop cans and the freezer was stocked with ice cream and popsicles of some sort.
In case you haven't figure it out yet, most of my childhood summers (pre-jr. high) were wonderfully innocent and fun. I have the best mom in the world and when I was a kid, she always made it her mission to see that that was so.
I sure do love you, Mama.