Pop vs. Soda

I can't figure out why I find this so fascinating. I guess I've always been conscious of it because I grew up in LA (soda), then Connecticut (again, soda), then the formative years in Chicago (pop), Boston (soda), Washington, DC (appears to be Coke), and New York (soda).

So I guess the formative years were formative because I remember going to high school in Boston and being ridiculed for referring to it as a Pop Machine. So there you have it.