It is really strange how our minds work and some memories come creeping out of them when least expected. I had a memory come flooding back today that reminded me of my grandparents, my Nanny and Papa.

A few weeks ago, I sent some Bagley College of Engineering goodies to William Gallagher in the UK. He and I had been corresponding a little on interviewing and the course he offers. I told him that I had been hosting MomentumTV for the college and he decided to have a look at the channel. I suggested he look at the episode hosted by Philip Allison where he interviewed hagan Walker, the CEO of the company Glo. William became interested in the Glo information, so I sent him a Glo cowbell our Online Education office had given away a while back.

In the Universal Control episode of 58keys that was published yesterday, William Gallagher shows the Glo cowbell and drops it in his glass of Pepsi Max. I found it interesting that he dropped it into a glass of Pepsi, especially since I too am a Pepsi drinker. It is a difficult task when you live in Coca Cola country, but I have been a Pepsi drinker from the beginning.

The memory that came flooding back to me in watching this episode of 58keys was of my grandparents; my Nanny and Papa. We would visit them for a few weeks each summer, and Nanny always had a supply of Pepsi for me. Back in the day, she would have a couple of wooden crates of 12 ounce Pepsi bottles, the bottles that had a twist at the bottle’s neck. These were kept in the cabinet under the oven. Nanny’s oven was not below the stove as is the case in most houses today; it was mounted in a cabinet to the right of stove at chest height. This left room for a cabinet below the oven where she kept an old-fashioned AM radio in a case, and the Pepsi crates on top.

What makes this memory special is, that save for Papa drinking the occasional Pepsi, I seemed to be the only Pepsi drinker; the others preferred Coca Cola. I distinctly remember watching television in the living room one time and my sister had a Coke float while I had a Pepsi float. I remember oftentimes going into a service station with Papa and he would buy me a Pepsi, not a Coke.

Sometime later I realized what this meant. It meant that my grandparents wanted to make me happy. They could easily have said that all they had were Cokes, and honestly, I would have been fine. But they went out of their way to get me what I wanted, what I liked, and I don’t recall ever asking them to do so. That is why, when my granddaughter visits, I want to have what she likes, the brands she prefers, and not make her simply have what we have. If one day she has a memory of visits to our house, and feels only half as warm as I do in thinking about Pepsi’s at Nanny and Papa’s house, it will have been well-worth it.