Yesterday, I had a conversation with a client that flashed back a memory of my childhood. He shared how each Friday his mom would make popcorn for him and his three siblings. When they had popcorn, and only when they had popcorn, they got to drink SODA. Root beer, to be exact.
When I was little, my mom would let us have Pepsi (the REAL thing mind you – diet Pepsi didn’t exist, gasp!), only when we had pizza (homemade, of course – not takeout – that wasn’t available where I lived, either) or movie night popcorn. Oh, and this was a t.v. movie – no dvd’s, no video, no dvr. Lord. How did we survive?
Anyway, it’s not that I’m oblivious to or surprised by the fact that now, many people consume soda pop – diet or otherwise – practically nonstop throughout the day. Heck, my brother is one of them! It’s that the memory made me think about how at the time, neither my client nor myself considered drinking pop only for a treat as unusual – it was simply the norm at the time.
It made me think just how far “the norm” has shifted.