How long has the Hershey's bar occupied grocery shelves? It's just a sheath of inferior chocolate, but you can pick one up just about anywhere. Meanwhile, far more interesting treats disappear from the shelves.
The way we eat and our taste in foods is subject to whims, nudged by marketing campaigns, altered by factors such as availability and health standards. When fast food restaurants began popping up, for example, the drive-in fell out of favor.
Some of this is easy to explain, of course. Chop suey houses faded from the American landscape when more authentic dishes became readily available. Sometimes, however, the disappearance of an item makes no sense at all.
Either way, there are times when we all stop, look back, and think "I used to love those things."
So here are the 10 we miss the most:
10. Kellogg's Danish Go-Rounds
Like Pop-Tarts, these were boxed toaster pastries with fruit filling. But somehow they were so much better. Why? The shape was different--a kind of serpentine, lower intestines-ish swirl. The sugary glaze carried more sweetness your taste buds. And they just seemed more sophisticated. So naturally the company ditched these in favor of the more plebeian tart.
9. Home delivery of milk
Some places still offer the service. For the most part, however, home delivery is a thing of the past. We're not really sure if grocery shopping is more or less convenient than having someone drop off a gallon or two on a regular basis. Guess if you need something right away, the store is better. But there was something comfortable in the idea of a milkman, wasn't there? Or maybe that's just nostalgia talking.
8. Cigarette gum
Remember
these? A pack of gum sticks rolled into paper wrappers that resembled
cigarettes? They were dusted with powdered sugar, so one puff would
cause a realistic cloud of "smoke." If you wanted to step up, there
were bubble gum cigars. More of a redneck? They sold shredded gum in
pouches under the name Big League Chew. The anti-tobacco crowd should
have left these things alone.
7. Carnation Breakfast Bars
Yeah,
OK--they were kinda nasty, though in a good way: peanut butter-ish
flavor, a thin coating of chocolate, chewy and crumbly at the same
time. There was a certain familiarity to them, with nuts and grain and
indecipherable tastes. And they packed a good chunk of the vitamins and
protein you needed for a day. The downside? Well, if any it was that
kids couldn't stop after two or three.
6. Chop suey
Once
in awhile you find a restaurant that still serves this classic
Chinese-style American dish. But from the early 1900s through the
swingin' 60s, chop suey was everywhere. Meat, vegetables, that thick,
starchy sauce, crunchy noodles--there was no authenticity or logic to
it, but chop suey had everything in one bowl. Then Americans became
interested in worldly things, real ethnic cooking. And chop suey faded
from the scene.
5. Nabisco HeyDay bars
Oh, these were
good: wafers covered in caramel, chocolate and peanuts. In combination,
they became crunchy and chewy, sweet and bitter, mellow and rich.
Amazing...and long gone from America's shelves.
4. Root beer stands
Essentially
hot dog or burger joints serving (usually) good root beer, these stands
were everywhere in the 60s--and a few still exist today, although the
number is dwindling. For the most part these were drive-in style venues
with names like Dog n Suds or Stewart's. Brands such as A&W build
more substantial restaurants. They are sadly missed.
3. Keebler Magic Middles
What
seemed like a pound of shortbread cookie filled with sweet, oozing
chocolate...OK, so they were of normal grocery store brand size. But
Magic Middles seemed much bigger, in part because of the dense, rich
flow of butter and chocolate. Obviously they never sold well enough to
please corporate bosses.
2. Biscuits (and other things) made with lard
Simply
put, fat lends flavor. Biscuits made with lard are fluffy and delicate.
They need nothing--no butter or jam--to bring them to life.
1. McDonald's fries
Once
upon a time, McDonald's hand cut their fries and cooked them in oil
that included a goodly amount of beef fat. As the chain expanded, hand
cutting became unwieldy and expensive. During the 70s, they began
shipping pre-cut frozen batches to the stores. By the 80s, consumer
(and government) concerns over cholesterol forced them to switch to
vegetable oil. The company quietly blended beef essence into the oil,
which angered vegetarians and hardly made up the flavor deficit.
