As an adult—because as much as I don't want to admit it, 22 is an adult, I can't help but think about my childhood. I graduated college, now I'm immersed in the real world of finding a job, and I think about how much easier it was to be a kid. Your parents woke you up for school, bought you clothes, paid the bills, made you food, and even better, they bought your favorite snacks. When trading food at school, there were always those certain snacks that were valuable and not even the best ham and cheese sandwich could make a fair trade.
Moon Pies
"The perfect combination of marshmallow, graham and chocolate." Says the Moon Pie website, but so do the adults who grew up with them. The snack was first created for a KY coal miner in 1917 when he said he wanted a snack "as big as the moon." The rest is history, leaving us with delicious variations of the Moon Pie. "Back 50 years ago my mom put them in my lunch," Joni Ferraro said. Even in my stepdad's truck you can find Moon Pie wrappers. Working outside all day and on machines, he finds them convenient and quick. Personally, I just like them because I love s'mores!
Fruit Gushers, Roll Ups, Fruit by the Foot
General Mills just knew what they were doing when introducing fruit snacks, Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit by the Foot; they were a hot item. General Mills just turned 150 about two weeks ago and they are still going strong. With owning cereal brands and fruit snacks, they are a growing brand themselves. As a kid, I didn't know General Mills, all I knew is I wanted those fruit snacks that had juice in them, had tongue tattoos and I could leave hanging out of my mouth like a snake. "I know I wasn't allowed to have Gushers when I was in elementary school because 'they had no food value', according to my mom."
Odyssey Content Creator, Melissa Stoker said, "So whenever other kids brought them to lunch I would trade things like pretzels so I could get my hands on them. I was also always jealous of fruit roll ups—yet another snack my mom didn't believe in." Really though, who could forget the tongue tattoos?
Cosmic Brownies
"Dark, chewy brownies, topped with fudge icing, and colorful candy coated chocolate pieces." Again, one of those towering names that owned one of my favorite snacks, but I didn't care who Little Debbie was. I just wanted my Cosmic Brownies. If you were ever going to dominate the lunch table with who had the best snacks, you had to be the kid who brought these—not even brownie tasting snacks. The Oatmeal Creme Pie was the original pastry for the Debbie empire, but I think they reign supreme with the Cosmic Brownie.
Capri Sun
PB&J
"Pb&j was an everyday thing." Shannon Lehner says. "I still eat pb&j and Cosmic Brownies." says Andrew Brusca. It is true, I too share a deep nostalgic love for a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I even had an evenly spread pb&j for lunch today. There was always the debate between grape or strawberry jelly, and today, that debate could ruin friendships or even romance. The debate has grown just as the other companies who created great snacks did. We now have peach, blackberry, blueberry, paw paw, raspberry and probably more I am forgetting. Some people don't even use jam! There are fluffernutters or peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Let's not forget about the great Nutella and peanut butter sandwich. Even though the Nutella and peanut butter ones are really, really tasty, I still enjoy an old-fashioned pb&j with blackberry jelly.
Smiley Fries
McCain, you amazing idealist. Fries in the shapes of smiles? "I wish I could find some smile fries. They were the bomb." Well you're in luck, Andrew Brusca! They do still make them! Any time my mom comes home with regular shoe string fries, I give her that face. You know the face that looks like this:
My childhood was filled with dirt, crayons, scrapes, but more importantly, the best snacks ever! Now pardon me while I go run to the store, I forgot some things on my grocery list.
