The Beverage Run

So I guess this year I'm trying to drop soda. This means that I'll consume close to 1/2 gallon of Diet Coke per day less. I have been in the (arguably bad) habit of getting the 44-ouncer every afternoon on my walk to the gas station. I fear, however, that I still need my mid-afternoon beverage run. Today I embarked on my first sojourn in search of thirst quenching since relocating to Seattle.

I asked a coworker if he had any suggestions for a new haunt. Apparently nothing like this had been instituted. I say give me about 6-8 weeks and I'll have a regular following.

Looking back, I suppose that back in college it was Brian, Dave R. and I that would go to Hart's, that is until it was torn down. Sometimes that gal that gave us all the creeps would come too; we'll call her Tiffany. Jess often would join and of course Ray was a big-time beverage guy. Brent would on occasion, but his stomach prevented him most of the time.

Hart's was a gas station that had every single beverage on tap right next door to our office building. That means cheap refills and huge selection. Everybody could whet their whistle at Hart's. I mean, how many places had both Coke AND Pepsi products next to each other for sale? And every single product they offer? And Squirt? Nobody carried Squirt on the fountain. Not in 1999. Close to 30 different carbonated beverages available. It was a beautiful thing. I'd dance around the many flavors, never really settling down with a "usual."

That was when I'd usually get a hostess pie, if there was any that were $.50 and due to expire, and a York peppermint patty for anybody who wanted one. Whenever a new guy came, they thought there was some sort of a catch. After about a week of this, the other regulars had their "contribution." Brian went with the atomic fireball. Good choice really, since not everybody like the burning sensation of cinnamon in their mouth. Dave did once or twice, but his wasn't one you could bank on. Once in a while, you'd get the mooch who came just for the freebies from me and Brian. Slackers.

There there was "Black Tuesday." OK, I don't remember the day of the week, but Hart's had closed, and then a week or so later it was torn down. None of us could understand. We did understand, however, that we would never find a beverage sanctuary again like Hart's. Not so close. Not with the selection. Not in this lifetime. We did what every species through the annals of time has done: we adapted. About 3 blocks further down the street, Chevron sat on the corner with a smaller lobby, smaller beverage choice, and no York peppermint patties. The Beverage Run would never be the same. Of course, at this time Randall came on and joined the clan. In our time of loss, we gained a beverage brother. Randall and I would be known for making beverage runs at all hours of the night through the remainder of college together. I was a notorious Sobe drinker at the time.

There was another Randall in another time. He and I were RAs for a one professor who shall remain nameless. We were his lackies and we all knew it. Randall and I were trying to productize some of the work that had been poured into several years' worth of research, and we got really thirsty doing it. Chocolate milk was my drink of choice, slowly sipped over wars fought on the pool table. The rec center had $2.00/hr pool tables so you know where we spent our few minutes of decompression.

In Orem, it wasn't so easy. Doug "The Duke," Boyd, sometimes Doug, Jeremy or Rick and I would have to pile in a car and go to Maverick's. Not bad selection, but it was about 1/4 mile up the street. Certainly not the convenience I was used to. Bonds of brother hood forged, however, and if any of us couldn't make the beverage run, the rest of us could feel the void. Even when the office moved and beverages were another couple miles away, we weren't discouraged. We'd rotate the driving around. The beverage run had never failed us, and we weren't about to fail the beverage run. These were my Dr. Pepper days.

In Phoenix, there was a Chevron just about 2 blocks away from the office, which included crossing a pretty busy street. I say Chevron, but it is so much "On-Auk-Mor" than that. The fuel they sold was branded Chevron, but the convenience store was called the "On-Auk-Mor." The busy street you cross actually crosses soverign borders. On the east side of McClintock Drive is the Salt River Pima Maricopa County Indian Reservation. On their turf, they had the luxury of not charging tax on their Tobacco products, so accordingly they had a 5000 square foot Smoke Shop, inclusive of every single brand of cigarettes, accessories, pipes, chew, smokeless, pipe tobacco you could think of. I'm not a smoker so honestly, this is in all likelihood an incomplete accounting of the Smoke Shop offerings.

The Smoke Shop was about 1/3 the total size of the entire store. In the rest of the store there were classic items: beef jerky, gum, candy, batteries and is customary in the Phoenix area to have walls of refrigerated beverages for sale: Gatorade, Red Bull, Sobe, Monster, Coke, Pepsi, 7-up, Mountain Dew, root beer, orange juice, apple juice, snapple. In no way can I exhaustively say all the beverages to choose from.

Particular to the On-Auk-Mor was the Him-Ko-Gee Deli, which was met with mixed reviews. Now I am going on the record as saying that I've never seen a gas station with as fine a sandwich as the Him-Ko-Gee. I mean, The Him-Ko-Gee deli knocks the socks off of Subway anyday. Granted, I am admittedly biased against Subway, but these sandwiches are good, relatively inexpensive and are made by this really nice woman whose name escapes me at the moment. You can get a sandwich, pickle and a fountain drink for like 6 bucks. It was wonderful.

I suspect that because of the deli, there were fountain drinks. This was our oasis. Dave, Geoff, Muffaddal, Jesse and I wore a track in the sidewalk as we ruminated about various aspects of our work to and from the On-Auk-Mor. Sometimes our boss would join us. The selection wasn't stellar: Coke, Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Dr. Pepper, Orange Fanta, or Sprite. Jesse often got an upper-middle-class beverage like Tropicana Twister or something. I'd usually bring my own cup, since the refill charge was $.50 and a new drink was a full $1.00. I'd usually fill up with Diet Coke, but sometimes I'd lace it with Dr. Pepper or Cherry Coke. Occasionally I'd forget my cup, but sometimes even when I would, the same nice lady would only charge me for a refill anyway. You see, that is how they treat you at the Him-Ko-Gee.

I never did ask for an interpretation of "On-Auk-Mor" or "Him-Ko-Gee." I sort of regret that.

Crossing the busy street was a blessing and a curse. I mean, to be a good citizen you should wait there at the corner until the green man appeared. And if our little walk would stretch out a few more minutes, so be it. For the sake of humanity. That same wait could be painful in July and August as temperatures hovered around 120. And mind you, this is the mid-afternoon walk, so you'd get every single degree at 3 or 3:30. The Phoenix sun is in no way trivial. Scuffing your knee on the pavement could mean a second-degree burn.

I took my dog Kipp to work from time to time and we'd go on the beverage walk. In the summer, he hated it. He'd walk on the grass strips or beg to be carried. Once, he jumped up into my friend's wheelchair basket under the seat to avoid walking and to get in the shade. It was a riot.

So that leaves me here in Seattle. Dropping soda in no way means dropping the history, the significance or the legacy of the beverage run. I must adapt again. Acclimate to my new surroundings and of course, quench my 3:00 thirst.

Blindly, I went downstairs and out on the street. I'd gone it alone before and I'll likely do it again. I found some little Asian mart a few blocks away. Not that I am surprised - everything in about a 10-block radius is an Asian shop of some kind. Apparently, I'm in the international district, which is but a few short blocks away from little Chinatown. So that's cool. There are literally 15 different Thai, 12 Chinese, 7 Vietnamese and several other types of restaurants really close by. I'm loving it because I am a curry junkie. 20 different interpretations of curry? I'm up to the challenge.

I found that there were 3 or 4 fridges of beverages, but no fountain. I found a Sobe and felt comforted, somewhat connected to every beverage run of times past. I felt that, even though I was new in town, I was tooling the streets alone and I didn't have distinct beverage depot, everything was going to be OK. The lure of the beverage is timeless, as is the 3:00 thirst.

I may or may not return here for beverages, I can't see it satisfying enough types of thirst. But I have a contingency. I have a sinking suspicion that here too at Amazon, I'm on the cusp of forging beverage bonds of brotherhood.

That's all I have to say about that.