Ice-cold Cokes
the roving soda and snacks seller at a Pittsburgh Pirates game
“Ice-cold Cokes, ice-cold Cokes,” said the roving soda and snacks seller at the Pittsburg Pirates baseball game. It was back in the early-mid 1980’s, and I was at a baseball game with some northern cousins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Back then, the aptly-named Three Rivers Stadium was still there. The stadium was sited at the confluence of three rivers - the Allegheny river and the Monongahela river come together to form the Ohio river. Both the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team and Pittsburgh Steelers NFL football team shared the stadium back then.
I wasn’t yet a teenager when I first happened across the happy Ice-cold Cokes roving soda and snacks seller. He was probably old enough to be my Dad back then. He wore dark, thick, Coke-bottle type glasses. His graying hair was cut very short. He wore a modified baseball type of outfit as he worked for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball organization, or at least their contracted food and beverage provider.
He wore slacks, a vertically-striped short-sleeve shirt, and a Pittsburg Pirates baseball hat. He carried a large, heavy, metal platform type of thing that was secured and steadied by a rope or belt around his neck. The platform thing must have held 50 or 60 large Cokes, poured over ice from the soda fountain, in paper cups with lids and straws. He was also selling popcorn and peanuts off on the other side of that metal platform thing as well.
It couldn’t have been an easy job. This guy walked up and down those steep concrete steeps for the entire baseball game, which could be three hours or so long sometimes. Even as a kid, I marveled at the stamina that it must have taken to carry all that weight, while balancing all of those drinks and not spilling them. He’d also have to stop regularly to make the sales, take the cash and make change, all of that. This well before the debit card era, and even before the credit-card use era for such small buys. He served customer after customer after customer, and he always wore a smile. I wondered if he worked full-time in food concessions, or if it was a part-time evening and weekends role. Either way, it looked like very hard work.
I thought to myself that it looked like a thankless job. Back then, those large Cokes would have perhaps cost an unheard-of $1.00 or $2.00 or so each. (Compared to the $8.00 or $12.00 or $15.00 or more per each soda drink that these places charge now, it seems so affordable looking back.) My cousins and I would always look out for the Ice-cold Cokes man, game after game, and we’d usually see him. He had a high and raspy voice, which we found amusing as kids. Looking back now as a grown man, I suspect his voice was simply worn out and he was simply exhausted. Lost to my memory was whether or not we ever flagged him down to buy some Cokes and popcorn or peanuts from him. We probably did.
This particular family of cousins lived in a small town in NW Pennsylvania about 80 miles or so from Pittsburgh. It was probably about an hour and a half away from their home to the baseball stadium on the city’s waterfront. After a lazy day of playing in our cousin’s swimming pool or watching movies or playing baseball on the broad field behind their home, sometimes we’d go in to town. Going in to town would sometimes mean going in to Pittsburgh for a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game. It was such a thrill, leaving their small town to head into the big city of Pittsburgh.
We’d usually have an earlier dinner, or maybe a later, heavier lunch, before we all climbed into the van for the trip to Pittsburgh. Our Aunt, Big Mary, was a phenomenal cook, even when she was cooking simple things. (Read the story “The tower of love,” from June, 2025 to hear about what a giant Big Mary was to so many people.) She had a heart bigger than the state of Pennsylvania. She’s been gone for many years now, and we all still miss her a lot, such was her impact on all of us. Our Uncle, Big Tom, would usually pilot their large family van. It would not be uncommon for my Mom to pilot our large family van as well. There were a lot of us between the two large families, even when just a few of us were going to the baseball game.
“Do you think we’ll see the Ice-cold Cokes guy climbing up and down the stairs at the ballgame tonight,” I asked my cousin Mike (that’s his real name). “Probably, he seems to work the games a lot,” he replied. We then said “Ice-cold Cokes, ice-cold Cokes, ice-cold Cokes,” over and over again while we laughed. The van’s stereo played some great 80’s music overhead. We were probably catching some large radio station that was based out of Pittsburgh.
We all always enjoyed our summer trips up to NW Pennsylvania back in the day. It was usually a few degrees cooler, with very little or nonexistent humidity. It was so comfortable that many homes did not run or need to run central air conditioning. We’d often pack long-sleeve t-shirts, or light jackets, and a pair or two of jeans, to wear in the evening after dinner. It must have felt rather chilly in comparison to the Richmond, Virginia area on a summer night. As for me, I always loved the chill, and I still do.
Our Pennsylvania cousins were major, major sports fans. The boys all played football and they were good at it. They were of course major Pittsburgh Steelers fans as well. They went to a few Pittsburgh Steelers games as well in the fall / winter over time as well. Our family was much less athletic overall. We didn’t have posters of sports figures all over our bedroom walls like our cousins did. Big Tom, my Uncle, was also a golfer and he belonged to the local country club. I once played golf with two of my cousins at that country club, and I got my *ss handed to me, they were really good at the game.
Three Rivers stadium was torn down (imploded) in 2001, after about thirty years of service in hosting many a major sporting event. The two sports teams then upgraded, moving into their own respective homes right on or right adjacent to the old Three Rivers stadium site. The Pittsburgh Pirates moved into PNC Park. The Pittsburgh Steelers play at Acrisure Stadium. I believe the new stadiums were built on the land of the prior Three Rivers stadium, or right next to where it once stood, as I noted above.
It would be many years after those summer baseball games until I went down to the site of the former Three Rivers stadium in downtown Pittsburgh. In the summer of 2023, my wife and I took in the British pop star Ed Sheeran on his world tour. His show was held at the Acrisure Stadium, sited alongside the rivers in downtown Pittsburgh. The concert was one that my wife selected for us.
While I had heard of Ed Sheeran, I wasn’t terribly familiar with his songs. He put on a great show. He was very humble and very talented. He is very worthy of the mega-commercial success he enjoys. My in-laws now live in eastern England after many decades down in Australia. (My Mum-in-Law is English, my father-in-law is Australian). Ed Sheeran lives about a half-hour away from them.
As my wife and I sat up high in our seats awaiting the start of Ed Sheeran’s two opening acts, I scanned the river nearby, and the nice homes up on a cliff across the river. For a few moments, the fading sun fell away, and the temperature dropped. A baseball diamond appeared below, and the chatter of the play-by-play announcers filled the air around us. I looked down those dangerous, steep, concrete steps. I smiled as the memory the Ice-cold Cokes guy walked up the steps, cheerfully yet wearily looking to offer refreshments to the baseball fans all around him.
If you can tell my my writing, I look back upon former days with great favor, great nostalgia, and great gratitude. I think that some of the fondest memories of my life come from childhood. That is not to say that my adult years are not enjoyable, happy, or interesting, because they most certainly are. But my childhood was magical in so many ways, with a steady parade of magical people that routinely came across the stage of my life. They all live in my heart to this day and inspire me to be who I am. One of the reasons why I truly enjoy writing and sharing my stories so much is that I hope you find enjoyment, and some sort of happiness as well, in taking a trip back in time with me.
To be sure, my life has a warehouse of stories to share. I also look at people, places, and circumstances perhaps differently than most others in some sense. I look at them through the lense of personal entertainment at times. It must sound silly but its true. From light situations to very serious situations, I often seek the casual, I often seek the humor. And in so doing, I think I set myself up for a greater inventory of happy memories down the line. While the vast bulk of my stories are true and depicted from real persons and real events, my lively imagination inspires the rest.
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