3 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Chicago’s Green River Sodaon February 24, 2020 at 5:25 pm
Green River Soda was first introduced to Midwesterners back in 1919. Technically created in Davenport, Iowa, Green River Soda was sold to Schoenhofen Edelweiss Brewing Company of Chicago at the start of Prohibition. Because beer was no longer legally available, people were turning to nonalcoholic beverages called “Near Beers.” Just like Malort, Green River Soda became a Chicago staple as the locals guzzled down the sweet, lime-flavored soda. Here are a few things you might never have known about Green River Soda.
Green River Soda Was the Second Best Selling Soda in the USA
Seventy years ago, Green River Soda was the second most popular soft drink in the USA, with only Coca-Cola selling more bottles during the Prohibition.
It Might Have Changed Our Slang
One of the biggest regional debates is whether it is called soda or pop. Anyone who is born and raised in the Windy City and its surrounding areas will likely fervently state that it is pop, and the reason might be because of Green River Soda.
Way back in the day, bottles weren’t capped and, instead, were sealed using a marble. The marble would be put inside the glass bottle and would serve the purpose of stirring the syrup that settled on the bottom. If you wanted to seal the bottle, you would flip it over, and the marble would shift to the neck of the bottle. Thanks to the carbonation of the soda, the marble would stay there. When you wanted to open the bottle, you would swiftly jerk the bottle up. Rumor has it when the marble fell out, and it would make a pop, which is how that slang was created!
Green River Soda is Still Popular on St. Patrick’s Day
It should come as no surprise, but Green River Soda is still extremely popular around St. Patrick’s Day. In the month before the holiday, this favored lime drink makes roughly 30 percent of its annual sales. Even though the drink is still nonalcoholic, the green color helps the soda to remain popular.
Green River Soda still has a special place in our hearts. It reminds us of a simpler time as we drink the green, lime-flavored pop. While it isn’t always easy to find this vintage drink, you can find it at some Chicago area retailers and restaurants.
Fresh off his success from the 1985 movie, Back To The Future, Michael J Fox was chosen to play the lead role of Brantley Foster/Carlton Whitfield. When film critic Roger Ebert reviewed The Secret of My Success, he said it was trapped in some kind of time warp, referring to Fox’s previous movie. The film went on to gross $66 million in 1987 and stayed at the No. 1 movie for five weeks. 
With no job, he comes back to the corporation and talks his way into a temp position, which leads him to a scheme utilizing the identity Carlton Whitfield, a Jr., analyst whose wife recently gave birth to a child. Brantley is a smart and witty colleague who has the whole office up in arms, trying to figure out how this unknown gent is making such headway. As Brantley walks the tightrope of his stolen identity, he falls in love with Christy Lockhart, a beautiful colleague who also works at the company. Christy, a polished Jr. Analyst worries that if she doesn’t show Piers, her boss, that she can do the same job as the men, she will lose out of being promoted. As she falls for Brantley, he worries that his cunningness will backfire if Christy learns he’s not honest with her. With love in the air, Brantley is also troubled about saving his hometown factory where is mom works from closing. 
Billy Harrigan Tighe was magnificent in his debut at Paramount Theatre as Brantley Foster/Carlton Whitfield. Tighe, who recently starred in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella as Topher, brings the Michael J Fox magic to this play. Sydney Morton is equally as brilliant as Christy Lockhart, the smart, beautiful corporate co-worker who catches the eye of young Brantley Foster. Morton is just recently joined the cast in January, was perfect as Christy, and the chemistry with Tighe made for a night of enchanted theater magic. 
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Haven Theatre brings to the Roman stage, the bloodiest play written by William Shakespeare, ‘Titus Andronicus,’ a story filled with violence, murder, revenge, politics, class, culture, and gender. The Romans, who were the mortal enemies of the Goths, battled against Titus Andronicus, a Roman general, and his army. He returns from ten years of war, with only four out of twenty-five sons left. He has captured Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her three sons, and Aaron the Moor. In obedience to Roman rituals, he sacrifices her eldest son to his dead sons, which earns him Tamora’s unending hatred and her promise of revenge.
As a reward to the gods, they get to choose a Goth to be sacrificed, which happens to be the son of Tamora (Michaela Petro). She pleads for his life; however, no mercy was granted. She seeks revenge after Titus with Aaron (Andrew Perez). So the blood bath begins of which includes hand chops, cannibalism, beheadings, rape, torture, and a tongue extraction, which was the making of a good night of Shakespearean horror on stage.
The embodiment of Tamora, the Queen of Goth, mother of Chiron, and Demetrius, played by Michaela Petro, was quite entertaining to watch. Christopher Wayland, as Saturninus (the Emperor), the eldest son of the late Emperor of Rome, who Titus successfully advocated for him to be the new Emperor was hilarious.