Giving Up Coke for Lent
This year for Lent 2025, I decided to give up Coca-Cola - and it’s been one hell of a journey. I honestly did not feel giving up this heavenly carbonated substance would be so difficult. To me, Coke is a brain stimulant that offers a quick pick-me-up when I’m stressed or drained.
I guess my attraction to this psychoactive substance started when I was a child. I could only have Coca-Cola on special occasions such as birthday parties and Christmas. My parents felt that this carbonated euphoria in a can was not healthy for growing children. Oddly enough, my mother was a Coke enthusiast. She called the soda her special medicine and she always had a 12-pack hidden in her closet for medicinal purposes.
In the early 2000s when I purchased my first house, I saved up enough money to buy a washer & dryer but instead of being practical and getting a needed household item such as a washing machine at Sears, I made the wise decision to buy a non-working 1956 Coke machine at an antique mall. As I’m writing this blog, I’m staring at my wise investment under my Led Zeppelin neon sign and dreaming that an ice-cold bottled Coke is popping out of my prized possession... Oh yes, can you say addiction?
Coca-Cola always and still does have amazing marketing campaigns with such slogans as: “Coke Adds Life”, “Life Taste Good”, and “The Coke Side of Life”. I will never forget the television ad back in 1971 during the “It’s the Real Thing” campaign when hundreds of people from all over the world were standing in a huge open field holding a bottled Coke while singing, “ I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony… I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company… That’s the real thing.” Coke tv ads are classy unlike Pepsi controversial commercials that starred pop icons such as Madonna, who performed her song, “Like a Prayer” and it was taken off the air immediately because Pepsi and hundreds of religious group leaders did not care for the ‘burning of the cross” scene. And speaking of burning, how sad is it that Michael Jackson’s hair caught on fire while filming his Pepsi commercial. The only two positive memories I have of Pepsi (Coca-Cola’s most considerable completion) are from the sitcom, “Laverne & Shirley” because Penny Marshall, who played Laverne, said her favorite drink was milk and Pepsi. And in the cult classic movie, “Mommie Dearest”, Joan Crawford shouts, “Don’t F…K with me fellas!” as she addresses the Pepsi Cola Board of Directors.
All right, I’ve digressed enough about Coke which is the word we Southerners use for all sodas. In the long run, giving up Coca-Cola for lent has not been too much of a distress. I’ve replaced my addiction with the nice flavored sparkling water which is on sale at Walgreens for two bottles for $2.00.
Have a Coke and a Smile!
David
