Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The Grocery Store Clerk Just Made Me Feel OLD

I grew up in the late 1970's and early 1980's. I'm in my early 40's. When I was a teenager the only diet drinks were Fresca and TaB. I, to this day, love TaB. I love the girly pink and silver can, I love the fact that it is made with saccharine instead of all NutraSweet. I get a 12 pack of TaB as a present each year on my birthday from a friend. I usually only take it with me on road trips and as an occasional treat for home and work. It's hard to find in most places of America, Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi have taken over the soda aisle. My grocery store still sells it in 6 packs, sometimes I can find it in a 2 liter bottle, occasionally in a 12 can fridge pack. I don't "do" TaB energy drink, it's not TaB at all.

I stopped at the grocery store this am to pick up some "road snacks" for my upcoming weekend work (carrot sticks, bottled water and a 6 pack of TaB). The check out clerk looked to be about 16 and he said, "What is TaB?" I explained to him the brief history of TaB as I know it. He said the first time he ever saw the product was when he got his clerk job and of course, he said, "All these older ladies buy it". Yes in the eyes of the 16 year old clerk, I am an older lady.

Ah yes young man, all these ladies do buy it and I can tell you from experience, lots of men my age snitch it out my cooler as well. But boy, I did feel old for a few minutes this AM.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great post! I used to be hooked on TaB in the 80's, I feel nostalgic when I see it.