Nostalgia . . .

So many of the things from when I was a kid are gone now--particularly with foodstuffs. I just got to thinking today, and I thought I would post this "remember these?" sort of list. Feel free to add some more via comment . . .

1. Crystal Pepsi, and then SNL's spoof with "crystal gravy"
2. OK soda and calling 1-800-I FEEL OK
3. Hires Root Beer
4. Mello Yello (so much better than Mountain Dew)
5. Ramblin Root Beer (the best ever, by the way)
6. Superman cocoa
7. Cookies at McDonalds (the new ones stink . . .I'm talkin old school)
8. Burger Buddies (siamese twin burgers)
9. When BK started the whole restaurant thing when you'd sit down and get popcorn
10. BK’s “Herb” campaign--If you went in and asked about where "Herb" was, you supposedly got some discount on a burger or something. This mythical "Herb" went off and stole Whoppers or some lame thing like that
11. Pepsi "gotta have it card" where you could get like 2% off a purchase at Sam Goody on a purchase of fifty bucks or more, plus some free mints at selected CVSes
12. Those fruit snacks that only manifested themselves when the living trees, from whence they came, started shaking in a paralyptic convulsion. Those trees were on drugs too.
13."Vita pups " which were slush puppies available at my junior high school. Instead of sugar, the "base" ice was made with apple juice, and then you could add your flavor. I would sometimes get a "suicide" which was all the flavors mixed together.

14. "Jumpin Jack" doritos, which were monterey jack doritos. Now, everything has to be all extreme, with adjectives like "kickin" or "blazin" in front of it--as if the doritos were rollerblading to "The Offspring" or something.

15. Handi Snacks. They are still made today; some of my students eat them for snayck. The funny thing, though, is that little red "stick" thing by which one is supposed to take out the cheese product and spread it on the crackers. Some, more "cool" kids, would suck on this red stick for the next hour or so. But the thing that gets me is that in the Handi Snack factory, there has got to by one special room devoted to the "red stick" things. There has to be hordes of them. There have to be people working on that assembly line. And I bet some of those sticks "dont make the cut" and have to be thrown out. How sad. And someone is the manager of that section of the factory. And somewhere, someone's mom is very proud of their little boy who worked his way all the way up to "red stick quality control" supervisor at the Handi Snacks factory.

Sorry for the digression.

16. Hood Shake-Ups. These were awesome, prefabricated milkshakes you could buy in your grocer's dairy case. I dont see them anymore, and that's too bad, since you could really trick kids into getting more calcium. My mom used to get these for me whenever I had teeth extracted at the oral surgeon.

17. McDonald's Happy Meals that sometimes came in fuctional buckets instead of those paper box things. These buckets could then be taken to the beach, and played with. We didnt need some special movie to come out to have fun with our happy meals . . .just give us a bucket and we were happy.

18. Burger King's "International Chicken Sandwich" month, when they made three special chicken sandwiches which were supposed to represent three different countries: Italy, with marinara sauce and melted cheese; French, with ham and swiss cheese (go figure); and American, with the ultra creative and palatable lettuce and tomato. Go America sandwich!! Yeay!!! So different and innovative.