Peanuts in Your Coke

Every now and then a snapshot image of my childhood enters my mind's eye. This evening, I could see with crystal clarity my Aunt Brenda carrying a glass bottle of Coke filled with peanuts along Azle Avenue on Fort Worth's North Side in the early seventies. We had just left Bob & Fred's Grocery, where we had bought penny candy, and were walking back to my grandparents' house. The day was hot, and the chalky dust along the side of the road rose with every footstep.

For readers unfamiliar with putting peanuts in one's Coke or Dr. Pepper, the phenomenon is apparently a southern one, though I can't recall the last time I saw someone with peanuts in their drink. Verily, it has been many years. Well, since I do not have a USB chord that will allow me to transfer the 1970s image in my mind to this blog, I will share the only song I know that references putting peanuts in one's Coke.

Here is Houston's own Barbara Mandrell singing "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool."