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My Take

Choices

Mark McGee
Posted 1/21/23

Options are always good, but I for one am being overwhelmed by choices.

In the past couple of months my trips to the grocery store have increased dramatically. I have to admit I am dazzled at …

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My Take

Choices

Posted

Options are always good, but I for one am being overwhelmed by choices.

In the past couple of months my trips to the grocery store have increased dramatically. I have to admit I am dazzled at the choices available to me. Choosing what to drink, and what flavor to buy, is one of the more daunting experiences.

Just last week I had to leave the checkout counter because I realized I had the right flavor of cranberry juice, but I had the diet version. I remember when there was plain cranberry juice and then grape and apple were added in. I never thought at the time I would see cranberry juice combined with mangos or pineapples, but both those flavors and more are on the shelves.

There are more than 20 basic flavors of any given sports drink. I remember when there was only one choice of brand and only one choice of flavor – lemon-lime- bottled in large glass jugs. They also made a powdered version which athletic teams began using at the beginning of the 1970s.

What a break it was from water, though in junior high coach Tom Parker would only let us drink the lemon-lime mixture it during games. When the orange flavor was added we all were thrilled to have an option, but we certainly never expected in our wildest dreams we would someday have flavors like grape, fruit punch or cherry to choose from.

Joe Boy’s Dari (sic) Bar on Main Street, owned by Billie and Coke Crowell, was one of the first, if not the first, place in town to purchase an ICEE. There were two flavors – Coca-Cola and cherry. We all thought at the time those two choices were enough. But the company quickly added more. Now, according to the Internet, there are 150 different ICEE flavors with 30 available at any one time.

While it is true variety is the spice of life, I often wonder to myself why we need 23 flavors of any cola flavored drink, though I do like the cherry flavored versions. I even enjoy the mango flavored cola one company produces at various times of the year, but it is certainly not a flavor combination I would have thought of developing. Vanilla flavored cola drinks bring back memories for many who remember when most drug stores had soda fountains, but an orange flavored cola appears to me to be a little bit of a stretch.

Grocery shopping has become a nightmare for me. Oh, how it makes me dream of a simpler time.