A commercial I saw today got me thinking of the yummy and unusual food stuffs of my childhood. It was the iconic "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?" with the kid and the stereotypical graduate-cap-wearing owl. Ahhh, those were the days of creative commercials that didn't find it necessary to scream, force you to listen to mind-numbing jingles or assault viewers with visual effects that will make your corneas explode.
Now, I can't say I remember every food commercial, or more than a handful for that matter. Quite frankly all you needed was to walk through the aisles of the local supermarket for something sugar coated or in a package featuring cartoon characters to jump off the shelf and into your basket.
Of course there is the Trix Rabbit and the ever present "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!" Poor bunny...and Lucky the Leprechaun still being chased for his Lucky Charms after all these years. A few personal favorite cereals of mine, not because of any catchy commercial, but because the contents were tasty and/or the long lost art of "special prize in the box" items totally rocked :
*Alphabits -oh the things we would spell...
*Corn Pops -what on earth made them so slimy? ewww!
*Sugar Smacks -I don't know what made less sense, the name "Smacks" or the frog for a mascot
*Apple Jacks -with a color not found in nature let alone associated with apples, and what were those freckles made of?
*Cookie Crisp -the only time you could get away with eating dessert for breakfast!
Now these are all great, but as I mentioned above, no matter how good the cereal was nothing beat the mysterious prize waiting inside. I have fond recollections of Wacky Wallwalkers (until they met their fate in the carpet) and vague memories of cardboard records that were attached to the box-anyone else remember those?! I might just have to pick up a cereal box toting the latest movie tie-in promotional toy the next time I'm at the store.
Speaking of the store, for a few glorious years during my childhood, our local market was Alpha Beta. You may be wondering why that particular name crops up for this post, so let me tell you. Every time mom took us to the store with her, the ladies who worked in the bakery department always gave my sister and I a free butter cookie-you know the kind with the little kiss of pink "chocolate" in the middle? It is my belief that if they still gave away free cookies at the bakery section, the world would be a more pleasant place. Happily on our way to the first sugar high of the day, mom would then hand us a bunch of quarters and deposit us at the two personal theaters (imagine a photo booth, properly big enough for 2 children but with a video screen) so that she could shop in peace. It didn't matter that they only showed the same two films, a Mighty Mouse cartoon and Heckle & Jeckle cartoon that showed age and abuse from too many viewings each time we placed another quarter in the coin slot. Good times....
Back to the food! So I've covered breakfast, well, breakfast cereals. We weren't a big hot breakfast family and Pop Tarts became rather famously a road trip food that could be eaten (or in my sister's case-thrown up) any time of day. So on we go...
Chuck E. Cheese and Bullwinkle's were products of the Bay Area's pool of creative thinkers (I bet you didn't know that a former Atari employee was the founder of the first Chuck E. Cheese in San Jose) and were our favorite eateries for weekends and special occasions. Oddly enough, my favorite part of Mr. Cheese's establishment has long since gone-the second rate animatronic stage show featuring the "other" mouse and friends (my particular favorite being the not-PC-at-all Pasqualle with his poofy chef's hat and huge paisan mustachio). Bullwinkle's had something extra special-a water show to rival Bellagio's in Vegas, but only to the eyes of a 9 year old. For some reason I only remember going there with my grandparents-perhaps mom had reached her threshold with the Big Cheese. But even with the water show and outstanding interior (meant to be like you're hanging outdoors with the Canadian Mounties in a log cabin with stenciled warnings of low flying squirrels) Bullwinkle's would not last beyond the early 1990s. Skeeball, pizza and going home with an armful of junk trinkets purchased with hard earned tickets-now that's a great day!
Snacks were more interested in being fun and flavorful than healthy-Fruit Roll Ups, Kudos (the more-candy-than-granola-bars), Pudding Pops, Otter Pops, Pringles, and Food Sticks are the snacks that still have the ability to magically whisk me back to my childhood; although the latter has been off store shelves for quite some time. Out of all of these, I miss Food Sticks the most, in their space age wrapper and the Tootsie Roll-like consistency, so bizarre but so awesome! We made less than tempting treats from the Easy Bake oven and Snoopy snow cones with Kool-Aid. We fought over who got the last Louie Bloo Otter Pop and played with our string cheese. Lunchables were just coming to stores but since there wasn't anything Lunch-able about it, we didn't miss them.
I have great memories of going to McDonald's or A&W for dinner on busy nights, particularly when my sister and I had sports or dance practice, for Happy Meals or Baby Burgers and root beer floats. My dad loves to tell stories about how he and his high school buddies would challenge each other to see how many Baby Burgers they could eat in one sitting. I loved coming home with a new treasure, or if we were really good one of those collector glasses-I think we still had the Great Muppet Caper glasses until I went to college!
Desserts were the cream of the crop-Push Up Pops, Klondike Bars, Oreo cookie ice cream sandwiches, Jell-o parfaits, ice cream sundaes with Magic Shell topping-YUM! I'll never forget the time we went to the Aerospace Museum in San Diego and I bought Freeze Dried Ice Cream-just like the Astronauts eat! I'm not sure which was weirder, the texture or the fact that it came in Neapolitan flavor-you know, chocolate vanilla and strawberry. But anything was possible in the 80s!
Taking this little stroll down amnesia lane will have me shopping a little differently next time I'm at the local market. Don't be surprised if you see some Sugar Smacks and Fruit Roll Ups in my cart if we should bump into each other on Aisle 4. I'll be making my way towards the bakery department to make a suggestion about some butter cookies...
"When my get-up-and-go, has got-up-and-went...I hanker for a hunk of, a slab, a slice or chunck of...I hanker for a hunk of cheese!"
~Time for Timer cartoon