Maybe. Or maybe the people you hung with were from “the big city”! I have family near Syracuse, they call it “pop”.
I knew a woman from Minnesota who called it “Shasta pawp”. I assume that this was a local brand and a local pronunciation for pop.
Struck me too. The whole idea you need this instruction, wow, just WOW.
Remember the pull off tabs? Morons putting them back into the can before consuming the contents and then choking on them. Thank goodness or we would still be picking those tabs up off the beach etc where the other contingent of idiots would just carelessly toss them. Lots of cut feet.
You beat me to it!
When those stories about people choking on the pull tab that they put into the can were in the news, I always had to wonder… Why would somebody put it back in the can?
No. No advertisers called it pop. I worked at a large change grocery store in high school, and they didn’t call it pop. No one in high school called it pop. Some people in college called it pop, but they were from out of town.
That explains the name.
In the can plant, shasta was a customer. Not many cans like Pabst but many flavors. I thought they were a Minnesota bottler since the cans were usually close to the final destination.
Shasta is national. But most stores no longer stock it, they prefer their own brand. Shasta makes most of the “store brands” of “generic” if you prefer that term. Before Winn Dixie was purchased by Aldi, their Chek carbonated drinks were likely made by Shasta. All sorts of flavors not offered by the other guys, like blackberry, strawberry, bubblegum, etc. Hospitals usually stocked Shasta ginger ale for the patients.
One of our local cheesesteak places shut down. People asked for suggestions, a place near me was mentioned. Went in, nope, they did a steak and cheese sub, did not even carry the stuff for a cheesesteak. I like cheesesteak, I guess I will have to make the drive to one of there more distant stores. Our premier grocery chain offer very good subs, order online, pickup later. On a whim, in lieu of my usual Italian sub, tried their Cuban, not even close!
In my teens, ((the Supremes were still the Supremes, if that gives you a clue) our Fri/Sat night cruising took us by Clark’s Submarines, never tried one, after all we were cruising to the hamburger stand. Got us back to cars, sort of.
In South East Asia , we had Po Boy stands in our squadron compounds. That’s where I developed a taste for Louisiana hot sauce, doused that po boy with it. Did not buy the b e e r though, got spoiled on Sapporo and Kirin before going to SEA.
Sorry VDC, I got carried away
My brother favored San Miguel when he was stationed in DaNang. He said that the Viet b e e r (33?) frequently had stuff floating in it. 
Yes, “b e e r” is censored. 
No problem, the alcohol killed it, whatever it was. 
They tell me heat is thebomly thing that kills those little parasites. Never tried heating grapes to 150 degrees.
Same as in CT, stickers. Which CT discontinued some years ago.
In a small part of CT: “Wedge”, as in the “Wedge Inn” restaurant
There was a time that many states changed the entire license plate every year. Yes, the year was on the plate! Of course that’s expensive, so that’s gone the way of the Dodo bird.
Up until a few years ago Florida had the county on the bottom of the plate.
I did drink some 33, downtown, always specified unopened American brands. San Miguel was not readily available, however, when I was in processing, brought in to meet the Squadron Commander, he had his feet up on his desk drinking a San Miguel. He had friends that flew the brass to the Philippines, brought cases back.
At the giant US base in Da Nang, San Miguel was readily available, as were some US brands and 33. My brother recalls the phonetic Vietnamese pronunciation for 33, which was Bah-mee-bah. He found it to be slightly sweet, and thus not as refreshing as a cold San Miguel, but when he started seeing… stuff… floating in many of the 33 bottles, that put an end to his consumption of 33.
The scourge of all barefoot beachgoers!
Seen as an “improvement” over using an opener my grandfather called a “church key” to open a can of b.e.e.r. or any canned drink, those pull tabs were a litter nightmare invented by the owner of Dayton Reliable Tool in Dayton, Ohio, Ermal Fraze.
To solve the problem he, himself, created, Ermal Fraze later invented the self captured pull-tab we all use today.