As a kid growing up in Kentucky whenever I or anyone else wanted a soft drink, we would invariably ask for a coke. The response to this statement was then, “Well, what kind do you want? We have Sprite, Coca-Cola, Root Beer, or Grape Nehi (No one ever offered a Pepsi – Pepsi was anathema, though one might occasionally be offered a RC Cola). Imagine my shock then when I moved to the Northeast and discovered that people up here refer to cokes as soda or pop (how uncouth)! My question for you, gentle reader, is how do you refer to these carbonated beverages?
Click the link that follows to see an interesting article on this, as well as a neat map that shows a breakdown of word usage in the U.S.: Pop vs Soda vs Coke
A Far Country 
I had culture shock when in 9th grade I moved from soda territory to pop territory. There was even a store called The Pop Shoppe that sold nothing but cases of soda!
As a former pop-sayer in a land of coke, I prefer to call them all carbonated beverages 🙂
It’s soda. It has always been soda. It will always be soda.
Pop is for sissies. Coke is a brand name. It’s soda.
Jim:
You’d like to think so, wouldn’t you.
Clearly I can not choose the coke in front of you!