"Cherrycoke" sounds a bit like a scrambled version of "Cherokee" to me.

[Joseph Tracy]

Love all these thoughts on the name. 

I was thinking about it from my perspective as a lousy-but-keeps-trying quaker with some sense of Friends culture,  and I  thought first of the obvious  sweet sugar drinks, both high caffeine and high alcohol that have always fueled our American selves and our economies.( coffee house scene in M&D, and slave, sugar, rum triangle). So anyway Cherry-Coke as an identity is rather the opposite of historic  Quaker aspiration to plain speech, avoidance of alcohol, avoidance of stimulants( The reverend mentions those as departing advice) . He exhibits some classic Friends ways like keeping a"spritual day book) but is also called Reverend which title is generally anathema to Friends.
The  other meanings of coke also suggested themselves and particularly the role of coke in making possible the age of industrial steel. Perhaps in that sense one could see the cherry as cherry-red (hot enough to melt iron)  and cheery which fits the reverend's style. So it makes a double image of sweet silly stories and fiery lies or truths to melt the raw materials of young listeners minds and shape the straight lines that are now dividing the planet. ( As iron sharpeneth iron, so sharpeneth a man the countenance of his friend....  Proverbs)

 So yes to unreliable narrator up to a point. But the story unfolds as a classic lie-to-tell-the-truth also, and while the religion of Friends fades from view, some of those moral ideas that shaped Friends history do not, and the reality of friendship (as opposed to Friends) comes into ever sharper relief and depth. All narrators are unreliable, our favorite lies revolve like uncatchable electrons around our pursuit of truth.

On Jan 7, 2015, at 5:31 AM, Elisabeth Romberg wrote:

> The fact that this coke stuff was first put into practice in Derbyshire and used for roasting malt «an alteration all England admired» - (one imagines Dixon to be one of them), coke «allowed for a lighter roast»: pale ale! - is intuitively very convincing as possible source of inspiration for the name. I like
> 
> 
>> 6. jan. 2015 kl. 14.40 skrev David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>:
>> 
>> Charry coke?
>> 
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coke_%28fuel%29
>> 
>> Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a high carbon content, usually made fromcoal. It is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes made from coal are grey, hard, andporous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made. The form known as petroleum coke, or pet coke, is derived from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes.
>> 
>> Great Britain[edit]
>> In 1589 a patent was granted to Thomas Proctor and William Peterson for making iron and steel and melting lead with "earth-coal, sea-coal, turf, and peat". The patent contains a distinct allusion to the preparation of coal by "cooking". In 1590 a patent was granted to the Dean of York to "purify pit-coal and free it from its offensive smell".[3] In 1620 a patent was granted to a company composed of William St. John and other knights, mentioning the use of coke in smelting ores and manufacturing metals. In 1627 a patent was granted to Sir John Hacket and Octavius de Strada for a method of rendering sea-coal and pit-coal as useful as charcoal for burning in houses, without offense by smell or smoke.[4]
>> In 1603 Hugh Plat suggested that coal might be charred in a manner analogous to the way charcoal is produced from wood. This process was not put into practice until 1642, when coke was used for roasting malt in Derbyshire; previously, brewers had used wood, as uncoked coal cannot be used in brewing because its sulfurous fumes would impart a foul taste to the beer.[5] It was considered an improvement in quality, and brought about an "alteration which all England admired"—the coke process allowed for a lighter roast of the malt, leading to the creation of what by the end of the 17th century was called pale ale.[4]
>> 
>> On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 4:46 AM, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm sure it means nothing, but I still wanted to throw it into the aether.
>> 
>> MT
>> 
> 

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