Memories of Brookdale Soda, pride of the Garden State

By Anthony Buccino

When I was a kid, I called the fruit punch flavor 'blood' and the cherry pit flavor tickled and chilled my chest after a hard day of play.

The men, strong and sure, gripped the cases, one in each hand and lugged our soda up the stairs to our second floor apartment.

I remember those big strong young men and the quiet summers on a dead end street.

It's funny, here, now, so many years later, how this old soda bottle brings me back home…

We drink Brookdale soda in my house. It's the only kind we buy. It says right on every bottle, "Pride of the Garden State."

It satisfies better than the TV-hyped soda and it's the soda pop I grew up with.

When I was a kid, I called the fruit punch flavor 'blood' and the cherry pit flavor tickled and chilled my chest after a hard day of play.

On my first visit to Ashtabula, Ohio, the summer dog day afternoon sun dried me out.

"Soda, please?" I asked my new friends. I waited for them to break out the Brookdale.

My throat was parched. My kingdom for a glass of Brookdale soda, I thought.

In the land of Buckeyes, where they think the Garden State has something to do with Eden, the place, not the TV star, I got a very, very tall glass of club soda!

Yuk! It tasted like the sands of Iwo Jima. What made matters worse was, it wasn't even Brookdale! How foreign can you get?

So, if you're ever out that way and the water doesn't fancy your suit, don't ask, "Soda, please?" Unless you're on a new diet.

I should put in to collect hazard pay for attempting to put ice in my Brookdale soda.

Lately, as my adulthood approaches, I've flavored Kola flavor. It's not cola, or un-cola, it's Kola! And I think it tastes best with lots of ice in a tall glass.

Every time I open the freezer door, a rock hard package of Sara Lee's dessert crashes onto my bare feet.

I won't say I'm a slow learner, but after about the fourth time around, I tried moving back with the freezer door when I opened it for the ice.

Good idea, right? I thought so, but that crumb cake was smarter than that.

It waited until I stepped around to get the tray, then it crashed. I put some ice in a glass and the rest on my foot.

If it keeps up like this, the soda made from artesian well water may just be my downfall.

Unless, and I just thought of this, unless I put the whole bottle in the freezer, then I won't have to get the ice!

Hmmmm, that sounds like a cool, safe idea for a hot summer night, doesn't it?

But I better remember the bottle or I'll really have something to write the folks in Ashtabula about.

I just remembered that those sealed bottles tend to explode when they freeze.

I grew up with that too, on the back porch, in the cold, cold winter nights in Belleville, New Jersey.

Adapted from: A FATHER'S PLACE An eclectic collection By Anthony Buccino

Published by
Cherry Blossom Press
PO Box 110252
Nutley NJ 07110

© 1976 by Anthony Buccino

Also included in GREETINGS FROM BELLEVILLE, NEW JERSEY, Collected Writings

First printed The Independent Press of Bloomfield, Bloomfield, NJ, July 22, 1976, Moreau Newspapers

Online pages are adapted from published versions.

Brookdale Soda - The Saga Continues

August 3, 2005

There ain't nothing in the world like washing down a Taylor ham sandwich with orange Brookdale soda.

Sometimes I get email that read something like this:

 I just looked at your website. I have a bottle of Brookdale beverage (empty) and have always wondered about it. It is an 8 oz. bottle but does not say what beverage was in it. I am not sure where I obtained it but it had to be in Georgia or Texas. Can you give me any information

 And, here's another one I just got:

 Hi,

I was cleaning out my garage in preparation of razing it to build a new one. In the attic, I came across a blue plastic case from the Brookdale beverage company with 11 Brookdale Beverage empties (one missing). The bottles are in very good shape and the labels are all fairly bright and intact. Do you know where I could find an empty to complete the case?

Ther are 3 Colas,2 Orange,1 Black Cherry,1 Grape,2 Lemon-Lime and 2 Cheers Lemon-Lime.

Thanks for your help.

Sincerely

So, what am I supposed to say?

BROOKDALE SODA

 Who could wait to drive

the family sedan or wagon

To the Brookdale soda depot

on 6th Street or Sylvan?

Empty cases in the trunk

Scooting through tree-lined streets

To the back yard driveway off

Sylvan Avenue in Bloomfield

or the Allwood Circle cross town

Or off to downtown at Heller/Heller

Grab a hand cart and an empty case

Splintering wood and later dark-blue plastic –

Go through the stacks of cases and fill them:

Birch beer – two or three, Kola, cream,

ginger ale, Cheers – don’t forget quinine too

Blood red cherry and cherry-pit, another birch

and fill it out with root beer, more Kola, too

and orange soda, cream, and bright green lemon-lime

Life never got any better than this,

and we wouldn’t know that for a long while

© Anthony Buccino

Reprinted from

YOUNTAKAH COUNTRY A Poetic View of Nutley, Old and New

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