Crystal Pepsi supposedly tasted similar to regular Pepsi but the lack of caramel color was supposed to make it less acidic. I never tried it myself.

Re: the Catskills, my parents used to go to various of the hotels for the weekend and sometimes took me and my brother. I remember hanging out at the pinball room with other kids as a teenager and rowing on the lake at the Homowack. We had a neighbor who was a comedian who played some of the hotels and I got a little thrill out of my parents knowing the headliner.