leta joy

It’s time for me to confess.  I’m a closet Ski drinker.  When I first moved to this town I had never heard of this wacky beverage.  Later I just thought it was some weird drink with a die hard west-sider following (east side versus west side is big around here.  I’ve lived here for 14 years and I still don’t get it).  Then I met Bubby and things changed.  Oh boy, how they changed.  Choirs of angels sang, the light shone down from the heavens and I found myself trying to like this bizarre citrusy cola, because his whole family swore by it.  You know how in My Big Fat Greek Wedding that one character’s family sprays Windex on every ailment?  Bubby’s family has the exact same tradition, only it is beverage related.  If you have a cold, you buy a 2-liter of Ski, guzzle it down, and you will be miraculously cured after you mope around the house for three days wrapped in a quilt, looking pathetic and milking your “man cold” for all it’s worth. We’ve shipped the stuff 8 hours north to Bubby’s brother in Michigan, for Pete’s sake.

Manufactured by the Double Cola company (they really need to work on their “taste the wake” tag line — and their website), Ski has been around since 1956 but I’ve only been a convert since 2004.  I really tried to like it before that, but thought it had a strange taste and stuck with Mountain Dew.  Then I got knocked up with Miss A and suddenly I not only liked Ski, I wanted to drink it all the time.  That taste preference did not go away after the birth of the girl child.  Now I will kick Bubby’s ass if he drinks the last can of Ski in the refrigerator.  I especially like to drink it at my in-laws, with crushed ice and a straw.

When my sister recently visited us, she had a taste and said “If I’m going to drink a pop, it has to be something that tastes good to be worth it.”  I replied something along the lines of “Well, OBVIOUSLY I think it tastes good or I wouldn’t drink it.”   But I totally understood what she meant.  It is weird.  This is the only drink on planet earth that I will drink even if all my ice has melted and it is watered down.  I’ll even drink it flat.  You don’t throw out Ski.  Ever.

Now Bubby thinks he can convince me to drink coffee, since I used to hate Ski and now I love it.   It’s more like an addiction that I can’t quit.  I think maybe they put some kind of addictive substance in it.  Or maybe I’m just weak.  I’ve never been well known for my will power.

However, I will never betray my beloved Coca-Cola for Double.  That is just going too far.  Sorry, relatives of The Bubs. Now if they just served Ski at Sonic…