JAMES LILEKS: You don’t have to drink so much water, you know.
You look back on your life and you find the moments that mattered, the instances of joy and despair, the the triumphs, the cruel losses and reversals, and you can gauge the depth and breadth of your story by these zenith and troughs. If they flash before your eyes when the time comes, I hope my final recollections includes the memory of leaning against an old Coke machine at a gas station somewhere in the South, taking the first draught of that Grape Nehi, pausing to marvel at this miraculous ichor, then draining it in two ecstatic gulps. It was a strange, lonely summer, but I was glad to be alive and on the road in America, infused again with glorious grape.
I’ve never had it since. Perhaps the rivers of heaven flow with grape Nehi. I’m no theologian, but I’m certain it’s not Lemon-Lime Shasta.
Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.™