'Dope and cherry, Fred'

Coca-Cola and cherry. Here's an article...

For God, Country & Coca-Cola” by Mark Pendergrast

If you stuck a needle in Mark Pendergrast, he just might bleed Coca-Cola.

“I grew up in Atlanta,” he says. “There are a number of family connections with Coca-Cola.”

Pendergrast, whose sister Nan Marshall lives in Savannah, covers all things Coca-Cola in his massive tome, from trivia to major issues. Did you know Coca-Cola once contained cocaine?

“‘Dope’ was a common name for Coca-Cola during the Depression,” Pendergrast says. “If you went into a soda fountain in the 1930s, you would have asked for a ‘dope with lime’ or a ‘dope with cherry,’ which refers to its former cocaine content.”

According to family legend, former Coke President Robert Woodruff proposed to Pendergrast’s maternal grandmother.

“She married my grandfather instead,” he says.

“My grandfather did buy Coca-Cola stock in 1919 when it went public, but he sold it a few years later to pay for a home he was building. Which is too bad, or I’d be rich.”

Pendergrast wrote his book because of the world’s fascination with Coca-Cola.

“I was intrigued with the irony, the paradox, that Coca-Cola is really basically sugar water,” he says.

“It’s certainly not an essential product, yet it has become the world’s most widely distributed product, and the second best-known word after ‘OK’ in the world. How did that happen?”

With a combination of soda water and patent medicine at its beginning, the soft drink company grew and became a symbol of the American way of life. The project took three years in writing and research.

“My mother wouldn’t let me drink it,” Pendergrast says. “Can you imagine growing up in Atlanta, Ga., and your mother wouldn’t let you drink Coca-Cola?

“I like to say this book is my revenge on Coca-Cola. When I first started writing it, my friends said somewhat condescendingly, ‘Is there actually enough to write a whole book on that?’”

Because of his book, Pendergrast has heard from people from all over the world.

“They are either Coca-Cola fanatics or people who think it’s an evil corporation that’s ruining the world,” he says.

“A lot of them have stories about ancestors who had stock or knew the formula. There are a lot of erroneous stories and misunderstandings. I did a lot to bring the story up to date.

“Until 1955, Coca-Cola was one drink in one size in one container,” Pendergrast says. “Today, it’s a company that is constantly evolving.”

http://savannahnow.com/accent/2013-07-13/local-authors-provide-provoca tive-summer-reads#.UgYVZk3D-ic