An Illinois man recalls that as a kid, he used to mix fountain drinks of every flavor into a concoction he and his friends called a suicide. He wonders if anyone else calls them that. Why a suicide? Because it looks and tastes like poison? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Soda Suicide Drinks”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Joel from Decatur, Illinois.
Hiya, Joel.
Hiya, Joel. What’s up?
I’ve got a question about the word suicide.
Okay.
Yeah, but not as it refers to its literal meaning.
When I was a little kid, my brother and I would go to a convenience store or a fast food place where you could fill up your own soda.
And when you put different types of soda into your glass, that was called a suicide.
And I thought that was just something my brother and I said, but I guess it’s not.
Everybody I know says that.
And I was just wondering how that word got attached to doing that.
Oh, wow.
So when you were a little kid, do you mind me asking how long ago that was?
Well, I’m 35 now, so, you know.
At least half that ago.
Do you still drink suicides now?
No, no.
I prefer the purity of Coke and unhealthy products.
Right, so you’re saying you would go down the line and do Pepsi, Mountain Dew, the Fanta, the whatever, Dr. Pepper.
Fill your glass with everything.
Oh, my gosh, that sounds disgusting.
Well, it is, and that’s why I don’t do it anymore.
But, of course, when you’re a kid, you know, anything sweet tastes good enough.
And would you drink the whole thing?
Yeah, usually because my mom would make me.
Right.
And you, yeah, right.
If you’re going to prepare the dish, you better be prepared to eat it.
Right.
Exactly.
And if your brother’s going to drink it, you’re, of course, going to drink yours.
Oh, absolutely.
Well, he was my older brother, so I did everything he did.
Well, we did the same thing when I worked in fast food, and this would be more than 20, this would be 22 years ago.
I worked there, so we would do this.
And we called them suicides as well.
And this was in Missouri.
So I know that it’s at least that old.
And I have a little bit of information about this.
Some people call it bug juice, and other people call it swamp juice.
But the reason it’s called a suicide is simply because it looks like a poisonous mixture, doesn’t it?
Usually it’s got a weird kind of, I hate to say this, but almost the color of mucus or pus, right?
It looks poisonous because you mix these odd colors together.
And it looks vaguely like industrial cleaner.
True, very true.
Something that you’re going to put on the floor and clean the tiles with and not something you’re going to put in your mouth.
I think this sounds completely disgusting.
What I want to know is, is this something that little girls do too, or is this a little boy thing?
Well, you have to answer that.
I don’t know.
It sounds like something gross that little boys would do, but I don’t know that I ever saw a girl do it.
Yeah, I never did it.
And my friends, I mean, I never even heard the term suicide soda.
Although since growing up and doing research, I mean, I’ve seen the expression graveyard soda.
I’ve seen them called shipwrecks and hurricanes.
Wait, these are the same thing?
Yeah.
Yeah, just a whole bunch of things.
Oh, I don’t know those terms.
Yeah.
Yeah, I wonder if there’s any suicide soda that tastes good.
Well, what you could do, if you didn’t do quite all of them, I would often take all the white sodas and mix them or all the black sodas and mix them.
That’s something very citrusy that’s not quite identifiable as a particular kind of drink.
It’s just different.
Variety. But these days, water will do. I take some water out of the bathroom and some water out of the kitchen, and then I mix them, a little bottled water, and then I have a suicide water drink.
It’s great. Well, so Joel, you’re right. It wasn’t just you and your brother. This is a popular pastime among little boys, at least.
I guess so. At least for a couple of times, right?
Joel, hopefully we get some information from our listeners about this, and if we do, we’ll be sure to post it to the website, all right?
Yeah, I’m looking forward to that. Thank you, sir.
Cheers.
Yeah, you too.
Bye-bye.
Bottoms up.
Martha, you never did that.
You were like a little prissy thing, right?
Yes.
I was.
I was a teenage prude.
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