(See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehi)
The first time I saw of this brand was in print in a book or an ad... I cannot recall fully. I read it as pronounced as "Nay Hee." The wikipedia article states that you are to pronounce this brand name of old as "Knee High"... which is wrong. Well, I mean, it's "Right"... but to a person who knows in his mind this brand name as "Nay Hee!" I feel strange about calling it "Knee High."
To me, drinking a Nay Hee! is a tremendous experience rife with joy whilst drinking a "Knee High" is totally a lackluster event that no one would ever want to tell the entire world about.
The third pronunciation variable possible with it is of course "Nee-Hee" which is okay but.... I would never wig about downing a bottle of Neeeeheeeeee, at all.
Nay Hee! on the other hand? It has a real fullness to the experience that other pronunciations of the beverage do not have. To know you're drinking an orange liquid called Nay Hee! is something you will not soon forget... which is not the case in drinking a Knee High or a Neee Heee.
Now, I wrote passingly on Orange Soda in my 2011 piece, "Obsessed with Artificial Crap"... my statements on Writings on Subjects 1.0 regarding Orange Soda was the following....
"When they made Orange Drink, the corn-syrup cheap replacement for orange juice, they made the orange color more visually pronounced and visually appealing through additives and food coloring chemicals. The color of real orange juice just was not orange enough for us." -Me, Like a Decade Ago (or so)People might've read that and thought I was some sort of healthy man or something...I'm not. I am not a healthy eater, at all. I love soda/soft-drinks (in my region Soft Drink is the main word for Soda)....I drink it by the gallon.... but for many years I did not imbibe in Orange Soda, ever. I know why and have never told anyone this before....it is a tale not for the faintest of heart.
....I was drinking Orange Soda ("Crush") when I was 10 years old whilst watching something that grossed me out big time and for many years ruined orange-colored soft drinks for me.
I will not link to the video of the event that whilst 10 year old me was taking a slow sip of Orange Crush ruined the beverage for me through negative association....or I guess I will....
It is a scene from 1993's own "hit" film Hot Shots: Part Deux... it is THIS scene.
As a ten year old child, watching this while taking a light sip on the Orange bubbly.... I almost puked in my mouth. For many years I'd associate Orange Soda with a man vomiting his testicles (as portrayed by walnuts) out of his own mouth.... and I could not delete this mental hangup from my mind in relation to Orange Soda. Orange Soda and a man vomiting testicles/walnuts out of his mouth were married in my mind for what seemed like an eternity.
Watching it again, after all these years, it WASN'T the walnuts that grossed me out. That was a more minor event of the gross out memory that my brain let me remember while drinking Orange Soda in the future... because it wasn't as gross as something else that happens in that clip above.
The part where Mr. Richard Crenna (tv and movie legend) eats the snout sandwich... is what did it. He bites into the snout sandwich and mustard shoots out of the pig snout like boogers. I blocked this out. It WASN'T the ball-vomiting at all that ruined Orange Soda for me... it was the snout boogers or mustard part that did it.
Can you imagine the director who directed screen legend Richard Crenna to do this? He's telling him, something like "okay Mr. Richard Crenna, WWII vet, star of film and screen... wait for my cue and then bite the pig snout sandwich... then the rig thing'll kick in as your biting and these tubes we put into the sandwich will start shooting mustard out of the pig's nostrils, okay? Okay? Good.... and then while you're holding that note... a man will vomit out his own testicles, in the form of walnuts, out of his mouth.... and ACTION!"
Meanwhile, young me, is drinking Orange Soda, not knowing this is going to happen. I mean, Leslie Nielsen would never do this in his movies. Ernest P. Worrell would never do this in his movies. Ten year old me is expecting Naked Gun stuff here whilst drinking some sweet bubbling Orange drink.... not MUSTARD PIG BOOGERS AND PEOPLE VOMITING BALLS OUT OF THEIR DAMNED MOUTHS!!!!
So thanks Hot Shots: Part Deux for ruining Orange Soda for me. I don't blame Richard Crenna, I think he's a great actor. I don't blame anyone but myself who should have waited to take a sip instead of going for it at such an ill-advised and inopportune moment as that one.
Fast forward to many years later from then, and a few years ago from now... when I discovered Orange Soda once was named Nay Hee!.... I overcame my mental hangup for the beverage and resumed my love for it, big time. If I call orange soda, Nay Hee!, just forget it, I can drink gallons of it. I can drink it like its water, baby. Nay Hee! overpowers all negative associations with the sheer force of how great these two syllables sound together.
I want the World to fall in love with Nay Hee! and feel the same way I do about it. I'm not sure many people out there have experienced the wonders of Orange Soda through the pronounciative lense of Nay Hee! in their entire lives. This brand name could destroy the Soda market if the soda people played their cards right.
The old slogan "Everyone Loves Nay Hee Orange because it is made from tree ripened Oranges" is okay...I guess. I have a hard time believing it was ever made from tree ripened oranges to be perfectly frank.
I have cool ideas for commercials to bring the glorious name of Nay Hee! back into the prominence it deserves. I know the niche market of people who re-discovered their like of Orange Soda by calling it something more funner thusly destroying images of Richard Crenna eating a pig mustard booger sandwich at an illegal fist fight.... is limited probably to One Person.... but even then it is still a niche market the soda people might be interested in courting.
The next two commercials would make Nay Hee! big again.....
Commercial #1
It is football season, the fall colors are great and majestic, a fan sits at the Orange Bowl and cheers for his favored football team. In front of him, is a big overweight slob who is cheering for the opposing team.
The overweight slob turns around after his team scores a touchdown and says to our hero... "HAHAHA MY TEAM IS GUNNNNA WIN! HAHAHA! "
The protagonist of the 30-second spot, is non-plussed and not that worried his team is gonna lose. He shrugs it off and takes a light sip of a cool bottle of Orange Nehi.
The overweight man laughs more in his general direction..."You're drinking KNEE HIGH!? HAHA! Try drinking something stronger ya weirdo!"
....as he's saying this he loses his footing and tumbleth downwards on the stairs. The overweight man falls down many many many stairs... his flab tossing this-way-and-that as he tumbleth the stairs in slow motion for several seconds....
...just then.... our hero's favored team scores a touch down.... to regain the lead and victory!
Our hero just slowly sips his Orange Soda and says....
..."It's pronounced.... Nay Hee."
Commercial #2
A fellow sits in a quaint yet fashionable resto-pub. He orders a drink and the bartender gives it to him. Light gently reflects off his sunglasses as he sips the orange beverage.
All of the patrons of the resto-pub look at this bottle of Orange soda in respectful awe. He doesn't say even the slightest of words, even, but he looks content.
Everyone, especially very gorgeous ladies, became interested in what he's drinking. A table of posh and well-to-do young people ask their waiter what he's imbibing in.
The bartender finally breaks the growing silence, "Sure is a tasty Orange Knee High, isn't it?"
...but our hero says nothing. The light of a passing sun beam reflects off his sunglasses once more... the light then hits the bottle of Nehi.... and our hero finally speaks his one and only line of the 30-second spot....
"...Nay Hee."
Conclusion
Pretty cool commercials. Casting would be easy because I know of someone who could really pull this character off. In fact, these commercials are pretty much tailored made for this person to preform. If you watch AEW wrestling you probably know whom I am thinking of as the protagonist.
Speaking of AEW Wrestling.... Combination Tag Attacks are flowing like wine (or Nay Hee) over there! Since this month's article was a short/silly one... I'm gonna do, at the end of the month, a reprise of an article I did a few years ago regarding Combination Attacks.
(My 2017 article, Best Tag Finishers: https://writingsonsubjects.blogspot.com/2017/05/best-tag-team-finishers_4.html)
My goodness, that went on long that Tag Finisher one. This year's format will still be one entry per medium (Chrono Trigger, Wrestling, Cartoons)... but we'll have finalists for each division. The article will be heavily slanted towards the best Tag Finishers in AEW because... well, that's really what I want to write about this time.... maybe Chrono Trigger etc. won't be in the next one... just Combination Attacks from AEW.
Edit February 17, 2020: I can see where the "Knee High" pronounciation caught some great big steam, I can. Watching one Clower, J. prounounce it as a "How A Cold Knee High Belly Washer Orange Sodie Water would Taste." I can see how this pronounciation was like so well in certain regions/eras (as such).
OFFICIAL RETRACTION
(May the 24th of 2020)
It is pronounced Knee High. From the ads you can see where they were going with it. The "Leg Lamp" from a "Christmas Story" the dad wins in a contest is fittingly from the Knee High Soda company. Makes sense. It is pronounced Orange Knee High. I was mistaken.
This ancient Orange beverage was NOT, repeat NOT called "Nay Hee"... apologies for the confusion.
