I guess... to somewhat answer my own question...
Perhaps Coke would be "better buy"... for those handful of years, we got our dividends still, and were purchasing shares at a discount. Eventually it "came back up", and now we have more shares when it came around = more money in our account.
then, the next question to answer (myself, not meaning you guys)... is to try and guess which one is going to be the "better guy" the next 10, 20 years.
Both being fairly solid in the past (PEP being a bit more "stable", but, stable can also = less shares = less money), they'll probably end up nearly the same in the end. hah.