Monday, November 10, 2008

Taken Back Again


Though nearly cell that my body possessed when I was ten years old has been replaced several times over there are still memories, reactions and comforts that carried on through the decades to where I am now. I was recently in a grocery store, in the cookie isle, which is pale and abysmal compared to the cookie isles of my youth. It seems that there are maybe four cookie conglomerates that hog all the shelves. There is little diversification yet plenty of boring unappetizing products.

Surrounded by cookie gloom I did find a touch stone that transported me back 45 years. It was a package of Barnum’s Animals crackers. The box looks pretty much the same, like a circus wagon with spoked wheels. It still has the flat string carrying handle. Blazed on the bottom of the front and rear panel is a reminder that the cookies on the inside are a good source of calcium, which to me is a stupid thing to list because they are never eaten for nutrition values, just comfort values. Just like when I wrote a while ago about a mayonnaise label boasting about it high content of Omega 3 fatty acids. Yeah, I’m going to double up on the mayo just to help my LDLs.

Upon opening the box there is a plastic liner that nearly looks and feels like the waxed paper liner that was used when I was a child. I guess wax paper is more expensive to use these days, though it does have more charm to me.

The vanilla cookies inside tasted exactly as I remembered them and reading the ingredients, the cookies don’t have a lot of chemical junk in them other than vitamins.

While I consumed the cookies I reflected on the illustration on the box. Each frame shows a parent and a baby animal. There is a tiger, a lion, a hippo, a giraffe, a zebra, a polar bear, a gorilla and an elephant. The illustrations are impeccable and delightful with each animal being affectionate towards one another.

This was the best cookie experience I’ve had in quite some time and I plan to relive it again, often.

11 Comments:

Blogger Donna. W said...

We buy animal cookies by the bag. They're low-fat and low-calorie, and Cliff loves them. Not me; I prefer chewy cookies.

4:17 AM  
Blogger JustRex said...

Me, it's the iced animal cookies with those little candy dots on them that get stuck in your teeth so horribly. It kills me to eat them, but I still do occasionally.

4:22 AM  
Blogger Jeff said...

One thing that has long bothered me, why do they call them animal "crackers"? If they are crackers, shouldn't they be in the aisle with Ritz and Wheat Thins?

4:23 AM  
Blogger loopymamain06 said...

Guy.........you either jog my memory, make me think or like today, give me an idea, thanks. I'll serve animal crackers to the lone small one(in laws great grand child) that is coming to my house on thanksgiving day, and he'll remember his auntie loopy as being the cookie lady.
loopymama

5:25 AM  
Blogger Auntie said...

Hey, nowhere in this wee narrative do you state that you actually purchased said cookies and took them home to eat. As I was reading this I was imagining you eating them right there in the aisle. And planning to do it again!!! LOL

5:57 AM  
Blogger Donna. W said...

OK Guy, I've finished my VERY technological song lyrics. It's on my blog.

8:10 AM  
Blogger richpix said...

Jeff, maybe it's something to do with the British. They call cookies "biscuits."

8:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Funny you bring this up now. My wife just brought home a big plastic container full of animal cookies. I am a notorious animal cookie monster.

7:10 PM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

Donna, I have yet to meet a cookie I didn't like.

Darev, one of our local grocers stopped carrying them. Cookie isles are much smaller now than they were when I was a kid.

Jeff, I'm not sure what exactly qualifies a cracker. It may be something like thickness rather than lack of sweeteners.

Loopy, I live to serve.

Auntie, of course I bought them, and I'm the type that won't even open a package while I'm in the car. So yes I ate them at home, and if you must know, while watching cartoons.

Donna, you are too much, all you need is a pedal steel and we're sending you to Nashville.

Good point, Rich.

g, how much competition do you have for them at your place?

On a final note, they are just the right size for eating and they dunk well in milk.

6:01 AM  
Blogger dalia said...

i'm telling the missus! lol

i too, love barnum's. they were the first animal cookies i ever ate.

11:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i eat 'em when no one is looking.

6:39 PM  

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