What did you drink with meals when you were growing up, and what do you drink now?

Then: milk (not with dinner though).
Now: water (with all three meals).

Was born in 1971, and I swear that water wasn’t invented until I went to college. I grew up drinking milk and occasionally orange juice, and I guarantee that I was chronically dehydrated (I thought pee was supposed to be dark yellow).

Now, it’s water. We all drink water exclusively (other than pre-breakfast coffee and the occasional evening beer) with all meals and throughout the day.

Then: Milk, well water
Now: Sweet tea, water

I was allergic to milk as a baby and a kid. I’m not now, but never developed a taste for it.
So as a kid water, as an adult Diet Pepsi in the morning and water the rest of the day

Then: Milk or iced tea
Now: water, wine or beer (depending on the dish and mood).

@hmmmmmm…what about when you were running around in the sumnertime heat? Surely you drank water from the hose or where ever? Water fountians?

^ That’s the thing. I swear we just never drank. My fuzzy memories of the 70s were of being perpetually thirsty. I must have had the occasional drink of water. But as I recall, drinking happened during meals or during special occasions.

* There were water fountains at school, but they were disgusting and usually avoided.

I used to drink milk with meals. Now I mostly drink water, sometimes pop.

I remember rushing in the house, getting a HUGE glass of water and draining in one fell swoop! Then I’d get a second and drink it slower. Then back out to sweat it all off again.

breakfast = milk
lunch = milk or juice
dinner = juice or water (Coke on special occasions)

THEN: MILK
NOW: ICED TEA OR MILK

Then: Milk, water and juice. (Loved fresh OJ).

Now: Water, coffee and maybe one diet soda a day.

Then: Whole milk, grape juice or water.

Now: water, Caffeine Free Diet Coke or 2% milk. First choice, Caffeine Free Diet Coke. Coffee in the morning.

Dandelion & Burdock
Ocelot milk

Grape Juice or orange juice for breakfast & we went through a lot of milk. We had a milkman & wore him out. We also had a racket in the Summertime, because we were home while the parents worked, so would catch the milkman & add ½ gallon of butterbrickle ice cream to our order at least twice a week. My parents would pretend to bitch about it but were notorious for gobbling it up while we slept. At school it was milk or chocolate milk for lunch. When home, we made our own lunches, where the choice was ice water, soda, and usually lemon or limeade when those fruits were around, & canned concentrates when they weren’t. Iced tea in the Summertime, but we kids regarded the stuff as swill. Dinner was always with ice water, which must be drained from its glass before soda was permitted to replace it.

When we had Juicy Steak (T-bones for each of us that dad grilled) we also had baked potatoes, green beans and tea. That was the only time we had tea. It was always milk, milk, milk.
Water was for rapid dehydration (as I said above.) Pop was just for fun,and they were rare. We got a pop as often as we got candy cigarettes (about once a month.)

Mom was a firm believer in milk. I think it’s good for you (not a popular opinion, I know) but she was crazy about it. I think it’s because she was raised on a dairy farm.

Then, juice
Now, water

What kind of juice @ARE_you_kidding_me?

Then: mostly milk, and occasionally juice.

Now: mostly iced tea with no sugar, or nothing at all. Sometimes coffee with non fat milk and no sugar, and sometimes just water.

Then: powdered milk. Now: tea.

As a kid, milk.
In my thirties, iced tea.
No, water.

I used to have one diet soda a day, but stopped many years ago.

Soda, almost once a day. Now I only drink water, tea, decaf coffee, and orange juice on occasion

Just water. I mean, past the age of 5 or so. I was a picky drinker. Now I’m most likely to have water, though I may sometimes have wine, or I’ll order a cocktail at a restaurant.

@rockfan, @Demosthenes…. specifically what drink were you served with meals growing up?

Same answer. I know I had milk and juice as a very young child, but from the time I can remember it was water. My siblings might have gotten something else. Definitely no soda, though.

Yeah….very little soda in our house either. I remember Creme Soda on rare celebration occasions, and orange or grape soda on hours-long road trips…to combat car sickness. Which we invariably got so we could stop at a gas station for pop!

As a young kid, for breakfast I often ate cereal, so the milk in the cereal was basically the drink. Sometimes water with it. Lunch when I was very little I think was water or juice at home. Dinner was water or juice or Coke. When we moved to Maryland when I was 9 I started buying cafeteria lunches where they only had milk. Thankfully, they had chocolate milk, so I drank that. I also drank water from the fountain if I was still thirsty.

Once in a blue moon I drank milk at home, but only if I had cookies to dip cookies into it.

As a teen I drank a lot of Coke. With my boyfriend I drank Koolaid at his house. I started dating him just before my 16th birthday.

On rare occasion I had iced tea. Lemonade sometimes also. Hot chocolate sometimes in the cold months with breakfast or midday snack.

As a young adult I drank a lot of Coke, some hot tea, and water. Iced tea at restaurants that only had Pepsi.

Now, I drink water 80–90% of the time. I also drink decaf iced and hot tea, and I still have Hot Chocolate once in a while with breakfast. I cheat and have a real Coke maybe 3 every 2 to 6 months. It’s usually in a row, and then I have none for many weeks or months. Additionally, I’ll have caffeine free soda once in a while (Dr. Brown’s cream soda, caffeine free Coke or Pepsi, or a Gingerale or Sprite) but fairly still infrequently. Once in a great while a lemonade.

Milk, water, pop, juice, and sometimes tea. Also flavored drink, purple stuff, and Kool-adie and Gatorade. Edited.

Also Fruitopia and Snapple. I still drink them all except for the purple stuff and Kooladie. I usually stick to water, pop and milk.

Ages 0 to 20 – milk
20 – 24 – Scotch and water
24–30 wine
31 to present – sparkling mineral water

Then: chocolate milk, milk, water, 7-Up, ginger ale, Pepsi cola, and assorted fruit juices,

Now: water, beer, red wine; strawberry and peach daiquiris; pina colada; strawberry, blueberry, and peach white tea, and Thai iced tea.

I’d say about 98% of my current liquid consumption is water.

THEN: Water or milk
NOW: Orange juice.

Viognier or syrah.

Then: Soda (Sprite or Root Beer)

Now: Water

I haven’t had regular soda since 1994 and diet soda since about 2010-ish. Stuff is bad for you.

I also drank egg nog and butter milk 10% milk fat. Milkshakes, carnation instant breakfast, and ensure meal replacement.

We only got milkshakes when we went to McDonalds.

@Dutchess_III My grandpa taught me how to make my own banana milkshakes. Blend bananas ice and milk and done.