Date: Tue, 24 May 1994 10:17:28 EST

From: Tracey McHenry mchenry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MACE.CC.PURDUE.EDU

Subject: Alaska versions of pile and soda



If anyone cares, growing up in Anchorage AK in the early 70's I would

play King of the Hill (or Queen actually) on big piles of snow , which

would referred to as 'berms' although I don't know if this is the term others

use. Thes soda vs pop vs other terms discussion fascinates me because I

truly cannot remember what I said "naturally" in AK. I suspect that I said

pop, but after 3 years of college in Portland OR I was forced into using 'soda'

in order to escape ridicule from my many Hawaiian friends. Does anyone

have any info, first hand or otherwise, on the use of these terms in the

West and/or Northwest? It seems to me that anything goes, except tonic.

Tracey McHenry

Purdue University

English Department



PS I have never heard anyone in AK or OR, for that matter, say brown cow

or anyhting else like that in reference to ice cream drinks. It was always

'float' or 'soda'.



*****************************************************************************

Tracey McHenry

mchenry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]mace.cc.purdue.edu



"You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

--Eleanor Roosevelt