A few months back, I wrote a blog post about the joy of discovering Grape Nehi soda at a local Cracker Barrel restaurant. The bottle sparked warm memories from my youth and drinking Grape Nehi at my grandmother’s house. You can read it here.
Then a couple of weeks later, I attended the Fall convention in Tulsa of Care Providers Oklahoma, the Long Term Care association for which I then worked.
I had checked into my room at the River Spirit’s fine hotel when there was a knock on the door. When I opened it, no one was there, but I discovered a small package on the floor of the hallway. I grabbed it and took it into my room.
What do you know? The package included a Grape Nehi, but no card or signature from whomever delivered or sent it. I texted my CPO colleagues, but all declared they knew nothing about it.
The next morning, the same thing happened. Now I had two Grape Nehis. Still no one claimed responsibility.
You can see where this is headed.
By the end of the convention, I had a four-pack of Grape Nehis. Some of them were delivered to me at various convention meetings in which I was participating.
I speculated on who might have sent it. My colleagues all denied involvement, as well as a couple of CPO members that I knew. I thought it might be the husband of one of my colleagues who told me that he read my blog. She said it wasn’t him.
Hmmm. It was sort of like playing the old game of ‘Clue’ and pondering if it was the butler who did it with a kitchen knife in the study. I left Tulsa with a four-pack of Grape Nehi and the mystery of who sent it still unsolved.
Fast forward to December. At CPO’s annual employee Christmas luncheon, my colleagues asked me if I had any guesses on who was responsible for the Grape Nehi. Of course, I didn’t because I had guessed pretty much anyone associated with CPO that I knew.
With that, Natashia Mason, CPO’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, held out her phone to me, which had an ongoing Facetime call on the screen. I looked at it, and there was Blake Jordan, owner/administrator of Beadles Nursing Home in Alva.
“It WAS you!,” I said to Blake. “I guessed that it was you two months ago, but you denied it.”
Sure enough, I had guessed that it might be Blake or his dad, Adam, both of whom have become friends of mine since I began working for CPO. Of course, they both denied it.
Although I left the CPO position at the end of the year, I recently pinged Blake to find out what prompted him to become my Secret Santa of Grape Nehi.
Here’s what Blake had to say:
“I remembered reading your blog post about seeing the Nehi being served at Golden Corral (editor’s note: it was Cracker Barrel), but not being able to get some. I thought you should be able to get a chance to enjoy it and ordered a pack of it. Instead of giving it to you all at once, I thought I would stagger it over the conference for a nice surprise throughout and have different people give it to you to keep you guessing. The CPO team was up for the fun, and they did a great job keeping it a secret. I think all of them knew the plan at the start and all played along.”
It played out over several months, and I thought I would leave the organization without knowing who sent the Grape Nehi. More from Blake:
“I have always liked a good mystery; I feel like it’s a way to feel a little magic in the world, kind of like the idea of Santa this time of year. I think on day two of Fall Fair you had a good idea of who it could be, asked me about it, but I wanted to keep it going for a little bit longer. Was thinking about keeping it going through the next years events, but someones retirement plans got in the way🙂
Thank you, Blake for the Grape Nehi, even if your responsibility was shrouded in mystery to me.
The Great Grape Nehi Mystery is finally solved.
BONUS CONTENT: Soon after this post was published I received this reaction from Kent Taylor, a friend who lives in Owasso, OK. Kent has his own Grape Nehi memories:
“That’s a good story. You have some good friends. It’s been years since I had a Nehi. As a kid, use to get one every time my dad and I went to the barber. He had a pop machine in his shop, I’d go first, then drink my Nehi while waiting on dad. Brings back memories.”
Editor’s note: As the curtain closes on 2025, I’ve gone through everything written on BlogOKC for the past year for my annual ‘best of’ column in which I select what I consider to be the best 10 of the year. In looking at the posts, I see a trend in what appeals to me for subject matter: nostalgia. Maybe I look back too often for topics that interest me, but that’s a lot of what I write about. Enjoy the top 10:
Some college nostalgia: Back to 2025. I’m not sure how or why, but I began listening to “London Homesick Blues” on replay over the course of the past couple of months. A wave of nostalgia washes over me when I hear it, and it really does take me back to that place — the ACU campus and the people with whom I shared classes and The Optimist newsroom. 
Jim Stafford's BlogOKC 