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.
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.
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!
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…
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.
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?!
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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
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. 🙂
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
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.
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 😉
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.
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.
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…