The Uncle Tommy

I went to Speedway Friday. It was a hot afternoon and I needed a boost. It was too hot for coffee and I wasn’t tired enough for a five hour energy drink. So I mixed myself an Uncle Tommy (lemonade with root beer). When I went to the cash register the cashier asked me if it was tea. (We don’t pay tax on tea but we do on soft drinks. “Must be a carryover from the Boston Tea Party”, I said to myself.) I told her it was lemonade and root beer – an Uncle Tommy. She said “And I suppose you’re Uncle Tommy?”

I was floored. Do people commonly name drinks after themselves? Is that a thing? Arnold Palmer apparently did. But Shirley Temple did not name her signature drink. Somebody else did. Shirley said once in an interview that she didn’t even like Shirley Temples.

Regardless, it’s cool Shirley has something named after her. Too bad she wasn’t Jewish though. They could have named a synagogue after her.