In July of 1983, I started a brand-spanking-new Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church in Somerset, Ohio — a congregation I would pastor for the next eleven years. During my time as pastor of Somerset Baptist Church, we lived in rental houses in New Lexington, Glenford, Somerset, and Junction City. For five years we lived in a 12’x60′ mobile home we parked next door to the church.
Our first rental was a house on Water Street in New Lexington. We only lived here for four months, moving to Glenford two weeks before Christmas of 1983. Polly and I don’t have many memories from our short stay on Water Street, but there is one event both of us remember well.
I was a pop (soda) drinker, and I still am (though I drink a lot less of it today than I did years ago). Nothing better than a cold 16-ounce glass bottle of Pepsi to quench your thirst on a warm summer day. For my younger readers who may not know this, back in the early 1980s, pop came in returnable glass bottles. Empty bottles were returned to the grocery, from which the local distributor/bottler would pick up the bottles, wash them, and refill them with the appropriate flavor of pop.
Empty pop bottles were used for a variety of things: emergency urinals and ashtrays, to name two. The bottles were washed and sanitized, so who cares who did what with the bottles, right?
One early fall day, I came home from work and opened the refrigerator to get a bottle of pop. I have always been a Pepsi/Dr. Pepper/Suncrest Cream Soda fan, but for some reason the only pop in the fridge was Sprite. I pulled a bottle from the fridge, shut the door, and popped the cap off the bottle with an opener. I quickly put the bottle to my lips and turned the bottle upward to take a swig of Sprite. As I did, I felt something hard hit my front teeth. I thought, what the heck (Baptist for “hell”)? I stopped drinking and brought the bottle down to eye level so I could see what it was that clunked me in the teeth.
In the bottle was a woman’s barrette with hair still attached! I quickly became nauseous, and to this day, thirty-nine years later, I still find it hard to drink Sprite. Irrational, to be sure, but I can’t shake the memory of a hair-filled barrette.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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And here I thought it was because someone preached a sermon about the evils of pop, and found Bible verses to back it up. 😉
Seriously, though . . . . GROSS!!!
I had the same thought. But I can understand how such an experience would ruin a beverage!
How disgusting!
But I had the same assumption at first, TLC. I was wondering what kind of sermon that was, too. Haha.
Most people do. Bad food or drink is one the thibgs that will psychologically caise humans to permanently change a behavior quickly
Great story. I’d probably be the same as you.
I’m sure that almost everyone has one thing we can’t eat or drink, all because of a traumatic experience.
Ewwwwww!!
I’ve had similar experiences!
(And I too, thought this post was going to be about a sermon from years ago, lmao:)
I enjoy reading this blog during my lunch break. This post did not enhance the experience for me. 🙁
Gross…. gag me. The invention of soft drinks is somatically equivalent to the invention of church for the human spirit. What began as a seemingly harmless entertainment with ‘the bubbly’ soon turned to poison. Soft drinks are soft because they are not hard, right? They do every bit as much damage to the body in excess as hard drinks but Jesus keeps soft drinks in the kitchen of every church! Jesus prefers that you poison yourself with white sugar in excess rather than too much tequila. It’s in the Bible; just can’t remember the best verse right this second. Do this in remembrance of me….. (I think that’s the one.)
There’s some rich symbolism in your free prize in the bottle Gerencser but I feel too sick to my stomach to hold it down! Gross me!
That’s so gross!!!! I wouldn’t touch a Sprite after that experience either!
Dayum… that would give me pause before ever drinking from a bottle ever again!