According to Wikipedia, “Beep was a fruit-juice-based drink brand, made by Farmers Cooperative Dairy of Nova Scotia, Canada and distributed in Canadian provinces. Originally produced in the 1960s, it was discontinued in March 2010; was temporarily revived in 2012 as a seasonal summertime drink and was discontinued a second time in 2015. Its revival in 2010 featured a vintage carton different from the carton used at the time it was discontinued. According to the carton, the drink contained water, sugar, fruit juices (orange, apple, apricot, prune, and pineapple), citric acid, orange pulp, natural flavours, sodium citrate, canola oil, modified corn starch, sodium benzoate, caramel colour, annatto, and ascorbic acid.”
It was also the class marking beverage of my youth.
For a time, milk was free in school and you paid for Beep. Later, milk was 25 cents a week and Beep was 75 cents. You had to hand in the money on Friday for the week coming. I remember taking on the task of handing out the containers of milk and of Beep and of finding out (in my 8 year old mind) who the rich kids were.
My parents thought milk was healthier–better than sugar juice–but I wanted Beep. Sometimes I got it. My partner Jeff’s grandfather was a dairy farmer and he was also not a Beep fan apparently. In his mind, milk was by far the superior beverage. But I loved it.
Years later, I tried Beep again and I still thought it wasn’t half bad. I think it’s the pineapple-orange combo that I like.
What did you drink at school? Who paid for it? Do you remember?
See Ode to Hotel Toast: Part 1 in a series in which Sam reminisces
I love this little trip down cafeteria hierarchy lane. Lunch Token poor kid right here. It was pretty humiliating. In first grade they’d line up us poors, call out our name and hand us our special green tokens (regular kids got red tokens) reminding us not to lose them between now and lunch. Big wagging fingers. There were years when we were poor/had no food but also didn’t get school lunch and I’m guessing it had to do with forms my parents didn’t bother to fill out. Beep beep. Driving to adulthood. Oh I like it here 😉
I believe our high school and lower, we were never any free lunches at school. I was raised in Waterloo. We were too poor to bring anything more than baloney or best, ham sandwiches or cheese with a fruit.