Beware the month of marching boots

MARCH is an interesting month historically. Named after Mars, the god of war, it certainly has seen more than its share of fighting and aggression. Hitler marched into Austria in March 1938 and declared it to be a province of Germany. Tsar Alexander II was murdered by extremists in March 1881. Julius Caesar was murdered rather publicly on March 15 in 44BC.

(Beware the Ides of March, Tavern readers. That’s tomorrow. Watch your backs.)

In March 1856, the Crimean War ended after three years of bloody conflict.

March 1918 saw the Battle of the Somme in which many thousands of British and German soldiers died.

March 1960 saw the infamous Sharpeville massacre in which South African police shot and killed 56 people and injured 162.

One interesting March event not related to war and violence, is that a new fizzy drink called Coca-Cola was launched in March 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia. It went on to be the most widely advertised product in the history of the human race.

It’s quite a challenge to find a place anywhere in the city where you can’t see that iconic red-and-white logo.

Coke’s image certainly has changed since that first batch went public. It was originally described as an “esteemed brain tonic and intellectual beverage, which will cure anything from hysteria to the common cold”.

Invented by Dr John Pemberton, it was made from a secret recipe, but the producers let it be known that it contained “caffeine from the cola nut and a tincture of cola leaves”.

I haven’t heard of anybody who’s been cured of the common cold by drinking the popular fizz, and there’s not a great deal of clinical hysteria around.

Coke is one of the two key ingredients of what could be described as the national drink of South Africa – “Klippies and Coke”.

It may not be the top seller here in the Cape, where people like to be seen sipping fine wines with their pinkies in the air, but up there in the great, warm heart of the land, K&C is the drink of choice.

When Coke was first launched, many people said the new drink would never catch on. It faced stiff competition from a similar cola-based drink called Imperial Inca Cola.

I don’t think there’s a single person on the planet who remembers Imperial Inca Cola.

Amazing what good marketing can do.

Last Laugh

A TIRED traveller walked into a dusty little Karoo pub called the Three Horses, in the middle of a blazing hot summer’s day, and ordered a Klippies and Coke. Plenty of Ice.

As he sipped his drink gratefully he turned to the barman and said: “I suppose this pub got its name from some historical Boer War event where three horses were the heroes of a great battle.”

“Ag, no sir,” said the barman casually, “I just named it after my wife.” “You named it The Three Horses after your wife?” “Ja – nag, nag , nag.”