- WILMA! I’M HOME. I floored to see this display at Costco; I didn’t know that Fruity Pebbles still existed. I have never eaten them in my life, so I have no opinion on the taste or quality of the cereal, but it seems like such an incredibly dated item. I mean, The Flintstones? Is this still part of the cultural zeitgeist? I used to love that show when I was a kid, but there weren’t many other options at the time, and I feel that if I watched an episode now I would be absolutely horrified. However, that doesn’t mean that seeing Fruity Pebbles didn’t give me a nice feeling of nostalgia; I remember watching commercials for such cereals on Saturday mornings while I ate my unsweetened Shreddies or Cheerios, or, if my mom was feeling especially indulgent, my Honey Nut Cheerios. The commercials would be for things like Count Chocula or Boo Berry cereal, items that my mother would have died before purchasing. Last Christmas I saw Elf cereal at the grocery store, and although I have followed in my mother’s footsteps when it comes to virtuously healthy cereal purchases, I bought a box, thinking it would be a fun snack. Reader, it was not. Even my teen boys couldn’t eat it, and I feel like that speaks volumes.
- Twinkie Twinkie, Not A Star. Speaking of my youth, I loved Archie comics, and I would read them cover to cover, including all the advertisements for things like Sea Monkeys and Twinkies. Sea Monkeys, I have since learned, are dehydrated brine shrimp. Twinkies, though. They looked so delicious, along with Hostess Cupcakes and Ding Dongs; I longed for such treats but at the time they were only available in the US. Any other Canadian women of a certain age remember how you had to “cross the line” to get such things? At the time I’m remembering, the Canadian dollar was pretty much on par with the US, and things like clothing and shoes were so much cheaper “down south,” so we would often drive down to Montana or Washington to do some shopping for back-to-school clothes. It was on one of those trips – where we ate unsweetened but still exciting cereal from those tiny boxes that came in a multipack, in our motel room – that my mom bought Twinkies AND Hostess Cupcakes. No Ding Dongs, but no matter. I was so excited to finally try these long-anticipated snacks, and let me tell you, never was a child so disappointed. I may have accepted that no matter how much cherry Kool-Aid I consumed, the Kool-Aid Man was never going to crash through my kitchen wall; I may have come to terms with the fact that a giant sentient bubble would never appear and hang out with me in my Mr. Bubbles-filled bathtub, but I truly felt like a Twinkie or Ding Dong or Hostess Cupcake would deliciously transport me into the world in which I was shiny-haired Veronica Lodge, snacking while Archie fawned over me and my incredible wealth. I can still remember eating the weird spongy cakes with the flavourless creme fillings, and feeling like my world lost a little bit of colour. Now they are widely available in any Canadian grocery store, and I give them the side-eye every time I see them.
- Pop Culture. My husband remembers, on a similar childhood trip Across The Line, being able to buy A&W Root Beer IN A CAN and that was as good as it got for him. That was also only available in the States, but since I have a strong aversion to root beer, it would have been wasted on me. My parents used to buy pop from The Pop Shoppe, and the glass bottles came in plastic cases that, along with the bottles, would be returned to the store. I remember one time that they definitely would have foregone the five cent bottle deposit. Generally they purchased cola and lemon-lime, but every once in a while there would be an orange or grape pop bottle in the case, and that would be a huge treat for me. I was told I could go downstairs and bring up “my” pop, but I was so excited I dropped the bottle on my foot; it shattered and I had to go into urgent care. The fourth toenail on that foot is still a little deformed to this day. Despite the fact that those drinks would be a treat for me, my number one favourite beverage at that time was the uncarbonated Orange Drink that came from McDonalds, and that was featured in every single Sports Day during elementary school. Along with the admittedly-probably-watered-down Orange Drink, it would have been considered extremely lucky to receive a little Dixie Cup of vanilla ice cream, the kind that came with a wooden spoon. I am pretty sure the Orange Drink is no longer in existence, and I would probably spin off the planet on a sugar high if I drank it now, but I wonder if those little ice cream cups are still part of this world?
- When You Wish Upon A Wish Book. One thing that is not part of this world that I genuinely miss every fall is the Sears Wish Book. I have loved the Wish Book for my whole life and was bereft when Sears went out of business. I loved the “gifts for under $10” section, and I always wanted a Snoopy Sno Cone Machine. I’m sure it would have never worked and would have been at least as disappointing as the Twinkie/ Hostess Cupcake experience, but still. Something that was NOT disappointing was the Christmas morning that I opened up my very own Cabbage Patch Kid, named Kora Candi. I did not realize it at the time, but it was a HUGE deal for my mom to get one for me. She had to have her name on a list at Zellers (remember Zellers? Remember grilled cheese sandwiches with fries and gravy at the Zellers “restaurant?”), and when the time came, she was taken into a back room where the staff triple-bagged the box, so that no one would know what she had and would try to rob her in the parking lot. The things moms do to make Christmas magical! The things that happened in the 80s! Let’s not mention that Xavier Roberts completely stole the idea from a little old lady at a craft fair and became very wealthy in the process; I loved Kora Candi and I still do.
- Your Mom Has Got It Going On. My younger son told me that, in his friend group, the response to “Anyone want to hang out?” is “Your mom does.” I didn’t know guys still insulted each other via “your mom” jokes anymore and, strangely, since I am apparently one of the butts of the joke, it made me happy. Ah, the circle of life. Frequently the question will be reframed as “Anyone want to hang out? Not with my mom.”
We have been having the most gorgeous summer with the longest stretch of absolutely perfect weather; I do not want summer to end. I guess that is why mid-August tends to be a nostalgic time of year for me; this year I’m thinking not just about when my kids were small and we’d be prepping for school, but when I was a kid myself. How about you, are you also feeling nostalgic these days? Is there anything from your past that makes you smile? Tell me everything. xo
August makes me nostalgic, too, because Noah’s about to go back to school (well, except that year he didn’t go back), so I find myself thinking a lot about summers past, when the kids were younger.
I did eat those super sweet cereals as a kid, and if I’m being honest, I think I’d still enjoy them, but of course, I don’t. I think it’s a good thing for my kids that we didn’t buy them for them either. It’s probably the kind of thing that if you haven’t eaten by the time you’re ten or twelve, you’ll never really want to eat.
At least where I live, you sometimes see those little paper cups of ice cream with wooden spoons at convenience stores, with the other ice cream novelties.
Hmm, that’s probably true, if cereal isn’t part of your childhood you’ll probably not get into it in later years. I love that the little ice creams are available in your area! This is a problem of me always buying things in bulk at the grocery store, I never go to convenience stores so I have no idea of the yummies that are there!
Loved this – I can practically smell that strange and wonderful combination of plastic and baby powder that I associate with Cabbage Patch Dolls. My parents were the same way about sugary cereal. The most exciting it got in my house was Rice Krispies or Kix.
And the McDonalds Orange Drink!!! Why was that The Drink of school sports??? In the big yellow dispensers, with the red tops??? It was so good and somehow so refreshing.
That makes me nostalgic for Koolaid bursts, which my parents somehow consented to buy me for school field trips only. What a treat! And Zingers – we were a Zingers family not a Twinkies family. Just like Twinkies but with a corrugated layer of frosting on top.
Suzanne, until you mentioned it I forgot the smell of baby powder and plastic. You’re right! I used to sniff Kora’s head a lot, and I loved that smell. A friend reminded me of Strawberry Shortcake dolls and I felt like I could smell them just by thinking about it! I also forgot the yellow dispensers with the red tops, they were at every single sports day!!!
I have never heard of Zingers, so I just googled it! I am sure they are not available here, or at least not in Superstore/ Costco/ Co-Op!
Yessss Strawberry Shortcake! She had such a unique strawberry-adjacent scent! Didn’t she have a friend, too, that was blueberry(ish) scented? My memory is quite fuzzy on this.
But now that I am thinking of nostalgic dolls, I am thinking of my Rainbow Brite doll. I seem to remember she had a stuffed, plush body and a hard, plastic face (and maybe hands and feet?). And the most spectacular rainbow hair.
I also had a lot of My Little Ponies. Egads, just thinking about all these treasured friends and how TERRIBLE they must be for the environment. All that plastic, in a landfill somewhere! Yikes!
Oh wow, yes, there would be so much plastic from our childhood!!!
What! I did not know that Twinkies ended at the border. I’m joining Suzanne on Team Zingers – same lack of flavor or any identifiable food content but with frosting!
I have never heard of Zingers and here both you and Suzanne had them as part of your childhood! I am sure they aren’t available here as I just googled them and have never seen them before!
Nicole, if you ever feel the need to try a Zinger, all you need to do is ask and I am HAPPY to send you a package! (Same goes for any American “treat”!)
Cereal was not really a thing growing up – that made it to Germany much later, but I remember one of the first ones was “Kellog’s Smacks”. I don’t think I ever saw them at a grocery store here…
Oh, they were called Sugar Smacks here, I think, and there was a bear on the box. We never got those either but I remember the commercials. I don’t know if they exist anymore!
It does–they changed the name to Honey Smacks to sound more “healthy”! or less sugary, anyway.
When I was a kid, mom let us get any cereal that didn’t have sugar as one of the first three ingredients. Which ruled out a lot! On our birthdays, we were allowed one box of anything we wanted. And of course, the time that I fell down the stairwell and bashed my head on the radiator, I got a box of everything I could think of! When your six-year-old almost kills herself, the rules aren’t as strict.
Wow, what doesn’t that rule out? I think even Shreddies has that as one of the main ingredients! Yikes about your fall down the stairwell, that is terrifying!
I remember having regular Cheerios (which I would sneak some sugar onto), and maybe Corn Flakes? We also liked a long-gone one called CW Post, which was a granola-type cereal. It was good, but that once-a-year box of Count Chocula was worlds away!
Oh yes, I used to put a spoon of sugar on my Cheerios too!
I lived in the States, but my parents were not springing for Hostess goodies, so the first time I had a Twinkie I was in high school. I, like you, was so underwhelmed. Who eats that nonsense? (I have similar feelings about Oreos, which my husband loves, but I find utterly revolting. Ha!)
Fruity Pebbles are always in our grocery store, but now that you bring it up, the Flintstones were retro when I was a kid – does any child under 10 know them at all?!
I don’t love Oreos either but I didn’t really grow up with them. However, I have had cookies and cream ice cream, and I make it for my own kids, and they love it.
One of my girlfriends has a ten-year-old and she asked him – he had no idea who the Flintstones were! So, sample size of one but I think we can safely say no kid would really know the show at all. I mean, hopefully. That show was sexist/ racist/ everything-ist.
How fun to read this! I haven’t had Fruity Pebbles since I was a child, but upon reading this, I can nearly taste them! You’ve brought up a bunch of great memories. I used to look at the Sears wish book for hours!
I loved the Sears wish book and not only just the toy section – I loved looking at the clothes too! Those matching beret, scarf, and glove sets – SO GLAMOUROUS!!!
I left a very long and thoughtful comment yesterday and then it disapeared. I might have wept a little. *sigh*
My mom wasn’t much into reading ingredients and let us have whatever would shut us up for a while. I loved Fruity pebbles! Honestly though, it does seem weird that this cereal is still around since the kids who are currently eating cereal DON’T know the Flintstones, right?
I loved the mini boxes of cereal. I remember opening up the box from the side, ripping open the plastic bag and pouring milk right in: no wasting of bowls for me!
I also loved Ding Dongs and I feel like I’m 12 just writing that.
Argh, I’m sorry your comment disappeared!!
The mini boxes were so fun; I too ate them in the package, like it was its own bowl!
Every now and then Doritos will come out with a vintage style bag—especially the taco flavored Doritos—and I love it so much. The first Dorito tastes like my childhood. Subsequent Doritos are never quite as good, but the first one (as long as it’s not over seasoned) tastes like the early 90s.
Oooh you know what I loved was Old Dutch chips, and in the 80s and 90s they were only available in Western Canada. SO EXCLUSIVE. I loved the ketchup flavoured ones. I haven’t had them in YEARS. I wonder what they’d taste like now!
1. I have never eaten Fruity Pebbles or seen it at the grocery store, I thought it was an American thing. I love Honey Nut Cheerios
2. We never got Twinkies either, but we buy Joe Louis for camping, and I enjoy my once-yearly Joe Louis
3. We had a Pop Shoppe at the bottom of the hill (where you had to go to get groceries or whatever in my little town) and I remember Lime Rickey fondly. Someone bought me a case of the Pop Shoppe Lime Rickey with vodka for my birthday a few years ago and it was vile. I finally stopped drinking that McDonald’s orange drink when I realized that every year I drank some at the Brownie Banquet and threw up. When I had to do the glucose test for gestational diabetes, guess what the drink was identical to? Not a good scene.
4. I also miss the Wish Book
5. I was aware that ‘your mom’ jokes are still in play. Once I said it to Angus and then realized I was actually his mom. Oops.
I’ve never had a Joe Louis but I see them all the time and I’ve always wondered about them!
Since I didn’t grow up on this continent, all of this is “exotic: to me 😁. I do remember being enthralled with sea monkeys and Hostess Twinkies ads in the comic books though. Never ate Twinkies–I think they were discontinued? And I was heartbroken when a cousin said he got the sea monkeys but there were no monkeys with crowns. LOL.
Twinkies aren’t discontinued here in Canada – I just saw them yesterday in the grocery store!
I too would be so disappointed there would be no monkeys with crowns. FALSE ADVERTISING!
So many memories! We also never got sweetened cereal growing up – it was Shreddies, corn flakes & Rice Krispies. Nor did my kids get those, except on vacation I bought the little boxes and did allow the ones with some sugary cereal. That means there is always a lone box of Rice Krispies left behind. I also remember Pop Shoppe, and being allowed pop once a week on Friday night. My mother baked every week so store bought treats like Twinkies were unheard of. I must admit that when I did eat one (usually at a friend’s ) I enjoyed them. Later in life I realized how much better home baked goods are. And the wish book – it was the most exciting time when that showed up!
Wish Book Arrival Day was so exciting!!!
Did we have the same mom? I am certain we must have. We also did not have sugar cereal growing up – until my little sister the caboose came along. Wow were standards different for her. She’s 7 years younger than me and I guess my mom was tired of towing the line for low-sugar cereal and let her have cocoa puffs and rice crispy treats cereal (do you remember that/did that come to Canada? It was like little clumps of rice crispy treats). And we did not have soda in the house so it was such a treat to go down to my grandparents and be given a whole can of coke and to not have to share it with anyone! The exception to the no sugar cereal was the little mini cereal boxes that they would get for our camper – so that’s when I would enjoy some fruit loops or trix. But at home it was cheerios – maybe honey nut – or grapenuts or corn flakes.
Oh and I know what you are talking about when you describe the little things of ice cream with the wooden spoon! I think they must still exist!
I do get a bit nostalgic during the return-to-school time of year. I really loved going back to school every August. And being up at my parents lake home brought back memories from my childhood. I have been thinking about how different my kids childhoods will be in terms of relationships with cousins. I had cousins close in age that lived close to me and the cousin closest in age to me was my best friend. My kids won’t really have that since I had kids so much later than most of my siblings. Their closest cousin is my sister’s daughter, but they live in Arizona so we won’t see them very often. But my husband did not have cousins close in age to him and he is actually closer to some of his cousins now as an adult than I am to the cousins I grew up with. Which is kind of strange to think about. But Phil’s dad passed about 9 years ago so this one set of brothers who also lost their dad have kid of taken us under their wing and now we celebrate holidays with them, and one of the cousins and his wife is our youngest son’s Godparents. So I guess just because Will and Paul won’t make memories with their cousins at children doesn’t mean they won’t forge a bond later in life. What a rambling comment from me – but I guess some of my nostalgia is kind of tinged with sadness?
Lisa, this really made me think. I grew up far away from my cousins but every summer we would be together for weeks and we travelled as a swarm. My kids are not at all close to their cousins and they mostly live in the same city. It’s just different now, I guess.
Maybe we did have the same mom! I remember cocoa puffs but not rice krispie treat cereal.
Oh, this post is so full of the “feels”! Such nostalgia! I have been feeling more nostalgic, that’s for sure, with a few life-altering events I’ve had in the last few years and a few coming up in the next few years.
Cereals-wise, a few years ago, my nephew told me he remembered that he and I used to watch Inspector Gadget while eating Sugar Smacks. He said we should do it again sometime for fun! Ha ha!! I had to find out whether Sugar Smacks is still around. LOL
I wonder if they are still around! Maybe I’ll wander down the cereal aisle when I go shopping today!
Oooh, definitely nostalgic over here. Moving from a house we have been in nearly 17 years. A daughter going to high school and the other junior high. It’s a lot.
I’m pretty sure you can get Dixie cups at COOP or Safeway. They come in a plastic sleeve of 6! My grandma always had them. 🙂
Big hugs, Anna. Lots of big changes for you! But here’s to making new memories. xo
How funny… we live on the other side of the world, and I’ve recently heard my 17yo daughter reply to various things with “your mum does… heh heh”. Existence of a global culture I guess.
I recently heard someone say disparagingly “back in the 80s we didn’t have PHONES, we just sat patiently and looked out the window”. I can tell you that I too was reading Archie comics from cover to cover, as well as everything from the cereal box to old National Geographics. The thought of a transportable source of every bit of information and entertainment in my hand, leaving me never short of something to read, would have been unimaginably glorious
Wouldn’t it though! I mean, we used to read the back of the cereal box, so we knew boredom!
I love that you are also getting the “your mom” jokes. It’s universal I guess!
Oh boy… you just nailed my childhood. Except that the things you longed for were daily occurrences for me. I actually ate Count Chocula for breakfast! Not sure what my mom was thinking. We also had fruity pebbles at times. And Twinkies were my FAVORITE hostess product! At one point, I had one in my school lunch everyday. It’s a miracle I grew into a healthy adult. So funny to have this trip down memory lane. I wonder if kids nowadays will have memories like this… their lives are so different than ours were.
I just read the comment by “M” and have to laugh at the names of some of the cereals back then. Sugar Smacks! Sugar Pops! Ha ha… somewhere along the lines they changed those to sound at leas slightly less unhealthy.
I can’t imagine buying something for breakfast with “sugar” in the name, but the 70s and 80s were a different time!
Oh man my mom would never buy sugared cereal but my best friend’s mom bought it all – fruit loops, captain crunch, golden grahams, you name it. Now the sugared cereal is not the only reason I loved staying over at my best friend’s house, but it was certainly one of the reasons why her house was the bomb.
My mom would also never buy twinkies, ding dongs, hostess cupcakes etc and I swore that when I grew up I’d buy them all the time. Well, fast forward to cramming for exams in grad school and a friend and I went to the convenience store at about midnight for snacks. I decided that was finally the time I was going to buy and eat all of those things. I was so disappointed when I discovered they tasted horrible. I always figured it was because I’d passed whatever age Rubicon exists for enjoying those things, but maybe not? Maybe I still would have thought they were gross as a kid? My 10 year old self is skeptical 😉
Hahahah that’s a great story, Maggie! All those years of longing. I feel it, babe!
I don’t want to make you jealous or anything, but my siblings and I had a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine. We used it once. The cheap plastic crank didn’t make a dent in the rock hard ice cubes. Trust me, you didn’t miss out on anything. As for sugary cereal. My mom was pretty strict too. And I was with my daughter, but sometimes I would get a box of Peanut Captain Crunch for her and mix it with Kix cereal as a compromise. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
Ha! I wondered if they worked, and I guess I’m really glad I didn’t get the sno cone machine! I had an easy-bake oven, though, and I don’t remember anything good coming out of it.
I’ve never eaten Fruity Pebbles. We were a big Hostess family – my mom bought all.of.it. And I loved all of it. I never ate fruit either, because I didn’t like it. I’ve made some changes, but eek – so unhealthy.
I always wanted an easy bake oven and a sno cone machine. Some people had all the luck. 😉
*hoping I can get this to work, my comments have not been posting. Maybe I have to sign in and out of wordpress.
It worked! It worked!
OK, I’m sorry, but Twinkies are gross. However, I did eat Little Debbie products growing up and THAT fake stuff will always have a place in my heart.
I had the Snoopy Sno-Cone machine. It worked a few times and then we never touched it again. Ha!
I was not a breakfast-food-for-breakfast kid. So my parents finally relented and let me eat PB toast, cinnamon toast (mmm…), coffee yogurt, etc. (And it had to be coffee yogurt. They still make it and I still love it. :>) I find it hilarious that the Elf cereal was as dreadful as it sounds, and that even bottomless pit teenage boys couldn’t stomach it.
Thanks for the trip down nostalgia lane…
I don’t think I have ever had a Little Debbie product! I’m sure they weren’t available here, although they may be now.