Pixifoods Part I

Posted: July 29th, 2008 | Filed under: Pop Culture | 207 Comments »

Well, I made it back from Fort Leavenworth. They let me leave on my own. We’ll tell you all about it some point, but in the meantime, here is the beginning of our Pixipedia … we start with our first installment of Pixifoods, which includes many of your suggestions.

* * *

Pixifood (PIKZ-ee-food), noun: Any food substance that is highly pleasant to the taste as a child and tastes shockingly unpleasant once you become an adult.

Baseball Card Gum
As a child it tastes like: Bubble blowing magic.
As an adult it tastes like: Sugared sandpaper.
Tidbits: A few years ago, Topps released a retro set of baseball cards — I believe it was based on the 1952 set. Anyway, it included the gum. I was SO excited. I immediately went to eBay and spent WAY too much on a box of those cards. I got it, and I chewed the gum and … I expect to get the feeling in my jaw back no later than September 2013. More to the point, the inside of my mouth got so raw, you could strike a match against it. What do they put in that stuff? Roofing shingles? I think part of the problem is that they started putting the gum in little plastic packets, presumably so they would not get stale and ruin the back of baseball cards like the old days. But maybe that’s how they lost the magic. As a kid it was great because, really, as far as taste went, you never know where the gum ended and the baseball cards began.

Beanie Weenies
As a child it tastes like: Smoky, beanie, weenie jubilation.
As an adult it tastes like: Cat food with an Italian twist.
Tidbits: The easiest lunch ever invented; you could throw throw a solid Beanie Weenie lunch together in seconds, and as a child you could get 45% of your daily of sugar and 48 mg of salt in one sitting. Plus, while it was true that it offered 0% Vitamin A, 0% Vitamin C and 42 grams of carbs, it did give you 20% of your daily recommended allowance of iron. Nutritious! Needless to say, it now tastes like warm shoes, which might be why the canny Van Camp’s folks created a barbecued variety.
Entry inspired by Dan.

Candy Cigarettes
As a child it tastes like: Sugary danger.
As an adult it tastes like: School chalk.
Tidbits: Ah, memories of standing outside on the front lawn with my old man, admiring the world, him smoking his Kents, me puffing on a candy cigarette, both of us breathing in that Cleveland air that was killing us, yes, memories. How in the hell did anyone think it would be a good idea to give kids candy cigarettes as some sort of simulation of the real thing? What a great idea. Why not just give us all a little heavenly heroin to shoot up? Maybe some lemon drop Jack Daniels to pound with our Pringles,

Jessica memory: This candy was definitely contraband in my house, and when we occasionally got a pack in our Halloween loot, my mother was appalled that some adult in our neighborhood was actually promoting smoking to America’s Youth. Since we did not waste, we were allowed to consume them, but we were absolutely not to act like we were smoking them as we did.

Entry inspired by Jessica

Cotton Candy
As a child it tastes like: You know, cotton candy.
As an adult it tastes like: Cotton root canals.
Tidbits: My own kids have had a surprisingly mixed reaction to cotton candy. Elizabeth, the 6-year old loves it. Margo is sort of a Cotton Candy Carrie Nation, she hates the stuff, so for Elizabeth every bite (available only because Elizabeth’s father believes in the rights of every child to have cotton candy) every bite is like a little bit of forbidden fruit. The funny thing is that the 3-year-old, Katie, cannot stand the stuff. She seems to already have taken on her mother’s personal. “This is bad for you,” she says, and she refuses to touch it.

Dinty Moore Beef Stew.
As a child it tastes like: The absolute best camping food available.
As an adult it tastes like: Dog Food
Tidbits: From the official literature — “When hungers comes a callin’, send it on its way with Dinty Moore Stew. Every can is loaded with hearty chunks of meat and vegetables, all covered in thick, lip-smacking gravy. Just one bowlful will send hunger running for cover. Simply heat and eat for a meal that works as hard as you do.”

Now, I think it’s possible that the Dinty Moore people are overselling their product here. But every company has the right and responsibility to do that. Lip-smacking gravy, indeed. My big problem is the last sentence: Simply heat and eat for a meal that works as hard as you do. I think this misidentifies the audience — it’s assuming that Dinty Moore is in the hard metal lunch boxes of those people working on construction sites and climbing telephone poles. But seriously, has NOT on a camping trip ever eaten Dinty Moore stew? It’s for kids, really, and really don’t work very hard. I’ve been trying to get my 3-year-old to get a job for two of those years, and she keeps refusing.

Entry inspired by Jack

Fig Newtons
As a child it tastes like: Fruit and cake and deliciousness.
As an adult it tastes like: Fruit chunks wrapped in death.
Tidbits: Gary Gulman classic line on Fig Newtons: “For a while there, figs only, which is, you know, a bold move dedicating your entire product line to the fig, of all fruits. The fig. What the hell is a fig? I’ve never seen one outside a Newton in my whole life.”

Brian memory: I can’t remember the last time I had them, but I remember loving them when I was a kid. Apparently my father bought a box recently, so I had a few. I immediately regretted my decision.
Entry inspired by Brian

Fluff
As a child it tastes like: Marshmallow goodness.
As an adult it tastes like: Glue.
Tidbits: I can remember a time when Fluff — like Wacky Packies, the game 7-5-3-1, and sneaking up on people and rubber-banding a hard piece of folded paper into their backsides — was the official stupid fad of my 5th grade class. I’m not sure who thought marshmallow would taste better when spread out on in a sandwich, but I can remember thinks that someone should have made some sort of sandwich spread out of Smarties.

FunDip
As a child it tastes like: a multi-flavored lollipop.
As an adult it tastes like: Cavity filling.
Tidbits: What you do is you dip your edible “Lik-a-Stix” into different flavors of “FunDip” and … do you ever wonder if the people at The Willy Wonka Candy Company were just playing an extravagant gag on America.**

*Like the song YMCA. I mean, obviously this has been mentioned a few times by now, but it is a song about how much fun it is to stay at the YMCA. There’s really nothing too tactful about the song. It includes the lyrics: “Young man … I’m sure you will find many ways to have a good time,” and “You get get yourself cleaned, you can have a good meal, you can do whatever you feel.” And yet if you were driving by a Christian Coalition Rally and you booed “YMCA” out of your car window, you can bet some people would do the dance.

Evan memory: It was the one candy that even as I child I understood was rotting my teeth even as I switched from cherry to apple to grape. But the best part was to get a few friends to all buy them and you could trade sugar packets if you didn’t like one. Looking back, I’m shocked they were marketed by Willy Wonka and not Skoal or Copenhagen. The name gives it away, it really was “dip” for kids. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out those packets were positively correlated with cancer in rats.
Entry inspired by Evan

Hungry Man (Turkey TV Dinner)

As a child it taste like: A feast for kings.
As an adult it tastes like: Leftovers from a distant past.

Tidbits: This is a very fancy Web site. The turkey dinner has an odd promise: “Savor mostly white meat …” Why mostly? Why won’t they give you all white meat? Is it because some people like turkey dark meat? Well, if that’s true, why stick it in their face that they won’t get much dark meat in this family feast?

David memory: Maybe it was the name ‘Hungry Man’ which when you are 10 years old seems pretty awe inspiring. Maybe it was the fact that it had so many courses. Maybe it was the fun in trying to keep all of the other food out of the dessert until the very end. … And I am willing to admit that it was a big ego boost for a 10 year old kid that he would be able to finish a whole Hungry Man dinner by himself. Now fast forward to a month agao…I was shopping at one of the fine Hong Kong supermarkets and there it was. I quickly slipped one into our shopping cart and prayed that sometime soon my wife would have a girl’s night out or something that would let me eat at home by myself. And then it happened a couple weeks ago and the dinner was awful. I was absolutely floored.
Entry inspired by David

Kentucky Fried Chicken
As a child it tastes like: Picnics in the park.
As an adult it tastes like: Salt.
Tidbits: We still have not come to a consensus on whether Kentucky Fried Chicken just doesn’t taste as good when you’re an adult or if Kentucky Fried Chicken has simply gone down in quality. I suspect it’s a little bit of both. Then there was the ill-advised decision to start calling themselves “KFC.” I suspect that this was a marketing decision based on the sound premise that you really don’t want the word “FRIED” in your name when people tend to replace that word in their minds with “coronary.” But I still think it was a mistake: It’s not like now people see KFC and think, “Oh, a little chicken, that would be perfect for my diet.” Instead, it seems people think, “Oh, KFC — I remember when they were Kentucky Friend Chicken and made tasty food.”

Necco Wafers
As a child it tastes like: Sugar-dusted yumminess.
As an adult it tastes like: Sidewalk chalk.
Tidbits: As Scott points out, this is probably the most versatile pixiefood of the bunch. Came in flavory goodness ranging from fruity (lemon, orange, lime) to spicy (cinnamon, clove, licorice) to minty (wintergreen) to savory (chocolate). Candy Cigarettes taste more like blackboard chalk, the kind at school, while Necco Wafers are more like sidewalk chalk, the kinds kids use to make hopscotch boards on my driveway. That’s the beauty of being a kid … you can differentiate between the different flavors of chalk. M&M’s tasted different based on the color. Its a shame that as we get older we lose the highly-refined tastes we had as children.

Scott memory: The indescructible Necco Wafers are the oldest continuously produced candies in the U.S. since 1847. Apparently the original batch is still in distribution. As kids these seemed like the closest thing to money we’d ever get. The coin-sized wafers were not only edible, they were useful as chips during poker or as replacements for missing game pieces. But that sugary dusting was partcularly satisfying to a kid. We didn’t really know about drugs like cocaine, but snorting this was our only vice before licking off the dust then crunching into the wafers.
Entry inspired by Scott

Pink Snowballs
As a child tastes like: Coconut cream filled pink cakes.
As an adult tastes like: Triple bypass surgery.
Tidbits: I remember working with an older guy in Augusta who loved Pink Snowballs. He would get one out of the vending machine every single day. I was 24 then, and already the concept seemed entirely disgusting. I think that Pink Snowballs were my first pixiefood, the first food that I devoured as a child that I thought, “OK, I’ve outgrown that.”

Pop Tarts
As a child tastes like: Flavor-filled pastry with delightful crunchy coating.
As an adult tastes like: Manilla folkders injected with jelly.
Tidbits: There are mixed feelings about whether Pop Tarts are really pixiefoods. I guess it depends on the flavor, whether or not it is toasted, what your circumstance happens to be. A few weeks ago, I got back to my hotel, and I was absolutely starving, and it was too late to get any sort of actual food. In the hotel store, I saw Pop Tarts. So I bought a pack, ate them, found them to be quite fulfilling and tolerable. I woke up the next morning feeling as if an alien was going to emerge from my stomach, and i have not recovered since.

Spaghetti-O’s
As a Kid: Well, kids love the taste (and Moms love the nutrition!)
As an adult: Plastic and ketchup.
Tidbits: “Helping kids grow strong and healthy is a full-time job. Why not let SpaghettiOs brand pasta give you a hand? Each delicious serving of these tender little O’s provides a serving of vegetables (Editor’s note: What vegetables?), a serving of grains AND at least SIX essential vitamins and minerals!”

OK, beyond the obvious vegetables question, I have another one: What do they mean AT LEAST six essential vitamins and minerals. Might there be more? Have those just not been discovered yet? Are scientist working in the SpaghettiO labs non-stop and occasionally shouting out, “WAIT, I found one! Oh, no, sorry, that was some lint from my pocket. Damn. False alarm.” Or does it depend on what you consider to be essential? Like do these have Calcite in them, but many Moms don’t feel that’s essential?

Entry inspired by Jason.

Tang
As a child it tastes like: Fruity drink goodness.
As an adult it tastes like: Laundry detergent
Tidbits: It amazes me now, looking back, that the real hook for Tang was that astronauts drank it. Wow, we really thought astronauts were superheroes back then. I don’t get the sense it is like that anymore. In some ways, I think NASA might be a PixiProgram, one that as a kid seems like the coolest thing ever and as an adult seems like a questionable use of taxpayer funds.
Entry inspired by Lou

207 Comments on “Pixifoods Part I”

1: Keith K. said at 10:07 am on July 29th, 2008:
I strongly object to the inclusion of KFC on this list. Not only is it still tasty, but it was invented by a Colonel. (Have you no respect for the U.S. military? Has Sean Hannity been notified?)

I wonder why having “Fried” in your name is considered a problem, while having “Kentucky” in your name is apparently an asset.
2: Andy said at 10:14 am on July 29th, 2008:
I also strongly object to the inclusion of KFC. As long as it hasn’t been sitting under the heat lamps all day, it is delicious.

I also mildly object to the inclusion of Fig Newtons. I had one the other day, and it still tasted pretty good, a little dry, but pretty good.
3: Shaun said at 10:16 am on July 29th, 2008:
I believe KFC changed their name because the state of Kentucky started charging companies to include their name in it. Thats why Kentucky Bluegrass and the Kentucky Derby were changed for a while. They all came to agreements with the state, so thats why they can all use Kentucky again. I have no evidence to back this up, so it could be incorrect. But I am sure other readers will find the evidence for me (if it exists).
4: Andy said at 10:17 am on July 29th, 2008:
I think we need a Pozcar-style vote for inclusion in the pixie food list. No voters under the age of 25. 65% of the vote needed to make the cut.
5: Dave said at 10:20 am on July 29th, 2008:
OK this has got to be one of the funniest posts I have read in a long time… I would like to throw out a suggestion of Peeps. Between those and Necco wafers, my niece is in heaven, but I just know (or pray) that one day she will know better.
6: SoxfaninKC said at 10:21 am on July 29th, 2008:
Even as a kid I didn’t like Tang. And while the taste of Fig Newtons is bad, they are still a better tasting alternative than drug store laxatives.
7: Nate said at 10:27 am on July 29th, 2008:
I was just in a candy store recently and was shocked/horrified to find they were still selling those candy cigarettes, there was a bowl right on the counter… how is it still legal to sell those?

I feel like someone should research the legal history of these things, is there a candy tobacco lobby somewhere?
8: Brent said at 10:29 am on July 29th, 2008:
This is a little off topic, but the discussion of gum, candy cigarettes and FunDip made me want to share. Anyway, in our building is a convenience store where they sell the usual convenience store wares: soda, candies, cigs, newspapers, lottery tix, etc. Anyway, this particular store puts on the counter right by the register in presumably a prime marketing spot its rack of Big League Chew. To understand the incongruity of this placement, let me explain that I work in a multistory building in Chicago’s Loop. I never see children in our building. So, my obvious question is, who is buying so much Big League Chew in our building that it rates being placed next to the lottery tix machine? Second question is, who knew they were still making it? I mean talk about your bad ideas. Let’s see Big League ballplayers always chew tobacco during games, let’s invent a gum that mimicks that, package it like chewing tobacco and sell it to kids. Just so the kids don’t misunderstand what we are really marketing here, we will call it Big League Chew. (As an aside, I still recall the jingo from commercials as a child, probably broadcast during This Week in Baseball: “You’re in the Big Leagues, when you make a perfect slide, you’re in the Big Leagues, when you block a shot or two, you’re in the Big Leagues, you’re in the Big League Chew:”)
9: Ralph said at 10:29 am on July 29th, 2008:
Joe, in regards to the baseball card gum, about a year ago I found a box of 1984 Topps wax-pack cards. I was so excited because as a kid that was my first year of really collecting them. I remember the cards from that year very well. Well, I bought the box and went home to see what players were inside. I opened up the first pack and the stick of gum fell out and shattered into about 10 pieces. Undeterred by gum that was so brittle that it shattered from a fall of 2 inches, I scooped up the pieces and popped them into my mouth, fully expecting them to taste like they did in my childhood. Wow, what a mistake. This stuff IMMEDIATELY turned into powder in my mouth, it was absolutely disgusting. That was my one and only experience of eating 24 year old gum. Never again.
10: Mikey said at 10:30 am on July 29th, 2008:
“Thats why Kentucky Bluegrass and the Kentucky Derby were changed for a while.”

Huh?!?!?

When was the Kentucky Derby ever known as anything but the Kentucky Derby?

Supposedly KFC is going back to their original name. Good move.

One way to get around using the word fried would be to re-brand themselves “Kentucky F**king Chicken” Now that I can get behind.
11: AMR said at 10:32 am on July 29th, 2008:
Peeps made me throw up when I was 7 or so. I don’t think I even swallowed the whole thing, just the first bit and I gagged and threw up lots of the Easter-chocolate I had eaten before (including the chocolate-covered marshmallows, which I did like).

I still like Fig Newtons, probably because my mom never got them for us because she hated them as a kid. “Sugary sand” she would say. So I didn’t start eating them until I turned 18 and moved out. They’re now my treat food after I donate blood.
12: Mikey said at 10:33 am on July 29th, 2008:
Big League Chew = Funniest food ever

It would be like putting candy pills for kids on the market today and calling them “Roids!”

I also remember that classic jingle line for line.
13: will betheboy said at 10:38 am on July 29th, 2008:
I’m 34 years old and I still enjoy many of these foods from time to time. I suspect that moderation is key when it comes to adults and pixifood.
14: Julie said at 10:38 am on July 29th, 2008:
Where are Twinkies on this list??? As a child, I vowed to always keep my cupboards stocked with Twinkies when I moved out on my own. I moved out when I was 18 and, during my first trip to the grocery store (I think the other things on my list were a gallon of Reunite on Ice That’s Nice! and Fritos), I did, in fact, purchase a very large box of Twinkies. At “dinner” that night, I immediately regretted my decision.Twinkies (which I just learned are 68% air, are definitely a treat for the younger palette. Aaah. Just another sad sign of aging.
15: deathsinger said at 10:38 am on July 29th, 2008:
Necco Wafers? Fundip? Fluff? I am unaware of these “foods.” I guess growing up in a cellar is a sheltered life. Who knew?

I have a 2 year old, so I guess I will have the pleasure of experiencing them soon.
16: Craig Weaver said at 10:43 am on July 29th, 2008:
Joe -

Pixifood doesn’t include Pixy Stix? It has to!

http://www.oldtimecandy.com/pixy-stix.htm

As a child it tastes like: Fruit-flavored Pixie Dust
As an adult it tastes like: Plain ol’ Dust

Did you ever do a face-first Pete Rose slide and end up with a mouthful of dirt? If you haven’t, just pick up some Pixy Stix. Pour one in your mouth and tastes exactly the same. Except without that pesky exercise.
17: Kyle said at 10:44 am on July 29th, 2008:
Kentucky Fried Chicken had to change to KFC because technically, the chicken isn’t fried. It’s broasted. Seriously, I couldn’t have even made that up if I wanted to.
18: will betheboy said at 10:45 am on July 29th, 2008:
Re: Mikey’s comment on Big League Chew – the best part of the commercials was the use of the phrase “Man Sized Wad” as a serving size.
19: Chizzo said at 10:45 am on July 29th, 2008:
Fig Newtons have to go. My G-Ma eats fig newtons. They are old people food, not young people.
20: Shaun said at 10:52 am on July 29th, 2008:
The Kentucky Derby didn’t stop being known to everyone as the Kentucky Derby for those couple of years, but it was advertised as the “Run for the Roses”. Kinda like how everyone talks about the Super Bowl knowing what it is, but everyone that is showing it lists it as “the Big Game” or something lame like that.

I guess if I want the research done, I have to do it myself
KFC Name Change
21: kc1fan8569 said at 10:52 am on July 29th, 2008:
No where on the list is Fruitty Pebbles, Count Chocula, or Frankenberry…

As a kid it was pure breakfast heaven.

As an adult Fruitty Pebbles is now the ultimate apoxy… Those things stick and stain everything… No telling what the hell they are doing to your insides…
22: Bellweather Johnson said at 11:03 am on July 29th, 2008:
Did the tagline used to be:

“Uh oh…SpaghettiOs!!!” (??)

…or is that just something me and by brothers would say? I like to think that was whe they used to say at the end of the commercials. What are you exactly trying to convey with a tagline like that?

Maybe that’s what you say when you look in the cupboard and find that your mother has accidentially purchased the SpachettiOs WITHOUT the meatballs. I remember that being one of the most heartwrenching moments of childhood:

“Yes…SpaghettiO time!! Haha!! wait…what!?!? UH OH……. [shouting to the heavens with fists clenched] SPAGHETTIOS!!!!!!”

I think SpaghettiO meatballs deserve their own Pixifood category:

As a child tastes like: Prime Rib
As an adult it tastes like: Fart
23: James H. said at 11:03 am on July 29th, 2008:
I strongly object to the inclusion of KFC on this list. Not only is it still tasty, but it was invented by a Colonel. (Have you no respect for the U.S. military? Has Sean Hannity been notified?)

————————————————————————————

Keith,

I am not sure if you were using sarcasm, but just so you know, Colonel Harlan Sanders was a Kentucky Colonel. A Kentucky Colonel is not a part of the US Military. A Kentucky Colonel is a member of a charitable organization for the advancement of Kentucky and Kentuckians.
24: James said at 11:06 am on July 29th, 2008:
I object. KFC does not taste like salt. It tastes like greasy salt.

I think KFC also belongs in the category of food that smells good, tastes bad. Honey peanuts sold on the street for example.

Pixifood- Hostess fruit pies. As a kid, like fruit pies, and as an adult, sugar with unknown blobs wrapped in dry dough.
25: G Young said at 11:08 am on July 29th, 2008:
The KFC thing was about “fried,” but it was about health reasons not about broasting.

Since 2005, KFC has been rolling out new restaurants under the Kentucky Fried Chicken name in an attempt to reclaim Kentucky Fried Chicken as the official brand name, but will continue to use KFC as its primary logo.

All of which is bunk because the first ever restaurant was in freaking Salt Lake City.
26: stepbaker said at 11:09 am on July 29th, 2008:
Come on, what about Dots? Or buttons? Or whatever it is you’re supposed to call those hard candy things glued to a strip of paper? Not only are they practically inedible, it has the bonus taste of paper!
27: Eric said at 11:09 am on July 29th, 2008:
Two words…”Lucky” and “Charms.”
28: EdB said at 11:13 am on July 29th, 2008:
Broasted chicken? For people who can’t commit to broiled or roasted? Another middle ground has been reached, needlessly.

And the people who don’t like Peeps are misguided, though it does mean there will be more for the rest of us. Unfortunately, the rest of us can actually hear our arteries slamming shut.
29: Jon Morse said at 11:15 am on July 29th, 2008:
I still make Beanie Weenies, but I do it differently now that I’m older. No pork ‘n beans and Oscar Mayer, no sir. And none of that Van Camp’s crud either. We’re talking molasses-laden baked beans with gigantic Hebrew Nationals or polska kielbasa. A tasty treat.

And, really, the chief problem with KFC is simply that Popeye’s is so much better.
30: Buck said at 11:17 am on July 29th, 2008:
I’d take off KFC, Pop Tarts, and Dinty Moore stew (I’d eat any of those right now), and I’d add Pez candy, Dots, Fruit Stripe gum, and jawbreakers. Maybe Peeps too, but I never liked those. Never cared for Bit-O-Honey either…
31: DGL said at 11:17 am on July 29th, 2008:
Shaun refers to a Snopes KFC Name Change page with the comment, “I guess if I want the research done, I have to do it myself.”

I’m not sure if he totally missed the point or is making an incredibly subtle and ironic joke, because the Snopes page is in their “The Repository Of Lost Legends” (TROLL) section, which is a bunch of spoofs, the motivation for which is to show people that they shouldn’t take single authority sources at face value, but should do their own research.

Kentucky never trademarked their name, the KFC rebranding had nothing to do with license payments, the Kentucky Derby was always the Kentucky Derby, and yes, Neil Diamond fans could still “Kentucky Woman” on radio playlists.
32: Andy said at 11:19 am on July 29th, 2008:
I must say, I still like ALL the foods I liked when I was a kid, including Beanie Weenies, Spaghetti-Os (hated the meatball ones), and Dinty Moore Beef Stew. And Fruity Pebbles.

As an aside, I always found it funny that the Brothers Chaps (of homestarrunner.com) refer to it as “K and F’n C.”
33: alex said at 11:20 am on July 29th, 2008:
Golden Crisp cereal.
Kid: Tasted wonderful, like honey in a bowl.
Adult: Tastes like over-sugared dog food.

Some others: Milk Duds, Now and Later’s, Quick! strawberry-flavored milk.

Great post, Joe.
34: Jhohnny said at 11:25 am on July 29th, 2008:
>>>I opened up the first pack and the stick of gum fell out and shattered into about 10 pieces.<<<

When I was a kid that (brittle gum) was referred to as, “any pack of cards bought after August 1.” Where I lived in Missouri, we were weeks away from anything that had to be shipped, causing the grocers to make their final orders in July. Most places would run out of baseball cards before the season was over, lest they get stuck with useless merchandise. It caused a run on the cards in late August, usually resulting in an overabundance of checklists, rookie stars, league leaders, team cards, managers and coaches – the worthless cards. Of course I kept buying them anyway. That’s how I ended up with 6 Mike Schmidt/Ron Cey rookie cards.

But the brittle gum, it taught me how to really stay with something and make it work. It took a while, and you had to chew hard and fast, but you could make it work. To this day, when I encounter a stick of Extra that seems to be melted and worthless, I think back to the brittle Topps gum, and by god, I make it work.
35: Mike said at 11:26 am on July 29th, 2008:
Cookie Crisp.

And definitely peeps, as mentioned here previously.
36: Perry said at 11:31 am on July 29th, 2008:
Little tidbit about Big League Chew, which I’m sure many if not most of you know: It was invented by Jim Bouton.
37: Johnny said at 11:33 am on July 29th, 2008:
Every Hostess product qualifies, correct?
38: Alex said at 11:36 am on July 29th, 2008:
I try to be honest with people about my favorite foods. Colesteral is clearly #1. Sugar is pretty obviously #2.

Cheese cake is high in both. Score! Fois gras is low in surgar, but I believe that it is 118% colesteral. Score! Chocolate chip cookies, high in both. Score!

You see, I am looking for patterns here.

So, what do we see in this list. Well, there’s a lot of sugar. But there is also a lot of cardboard. Cardboard and chalk have never been among of my favorite foods — not even forbidden cardboard and chalk — so most of these never appealed to me.

I’ve got fond memories of FunDip, which was pure sugar. I always hated Necco Wafers, which obviously were 10% and 90% cardboard.

But what about colesteral? That seems to be largely missing from the list. KFC is really the only truly high colesteral food, right? Well, Jon Morse is right, the chief problem with KFC is that Popeye’s better, but the quality is also clearly gone down. Not so far down that I don’t like it, or anything. But down.

I wonder if there are other high colesteral pixifoods.

What about the individually wrapped caramel cubes? Those seem like a 50-50 mix of sugar and colesteral to me. I’m still a fan. But what about the reasonable adults in the audience?

What about the atrocious individually wrapped corial cherries that you can still get at the checkout counter at CVS/RiteAid? I used to like those, but I think that they’ve raised to cardboard content in the last 30 years.

Why isn’t there any chocolate on this list, anyway? Like the Whitman’s Sampler of chocolates? I mean, those are horrendous, but as a kid I thought that they were fancy and wonderful.

And then, there’s Magic Shell. Liquid cardboard that will harden into crispy cardboard! Mmmmmm….
39: matt said at 11:38 am on July 29th, 2008:
My nominee: Cadbury Cream Eggs

As a kid: The world’s best chocolate filled with sweet, happy goodness.

Now: Taste is indiscernible because all you can focus on is how badly it makes your teeth hurt.
40: Geoff said at 11:41 am on July 29th, 2008:
I was always partial to the salisbury steak hungry man when I was a kid. I could never figure out why it wasn’t on the menu at Mr. Steak when we went out for a “fancy” meal…
41: Tim said at 12:01 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Pixiefood nominee:

Wax sodapop bottles
As a kid it tastes like: A mouthful of syrupy sweetness and a bottle you can chew!
As an adult it tastes like: A teaspoon of sugar mixed with cough syrup.

Used to love these as a kid. Bite the top off the bottle, suck out the sweetness/syrup and then chew up the bottle. And WOW! there were different “flavors” to boot. I think there was a dark syrup and one that was kinda red. You could probably include wax lips and any other kind of wax vessel from that era.
42: James H. said at 12:13 pm on July 29th, 2008:
“All of which is bunk because the first ever restaurant was in freaking Salt Lake City.”

Incorrect dear sir. The first Kentucky Fried Chicken was in a nowhere town named Corbin, KY. It was originally a Bed and Breakfast that had fantastic chicken. It’s about an hour north of Knoxville, TN.
43: Kyle said at 12:13 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Some others: Nerds, frozen burritos, Laffy-Taffy, Hamburger Helper, Now-n-laters, Jeno’s frozen pizzas, Jolt Cola, and those cheeze spread cracker kits with the red cheese spreading stick. Not to mention 80% of the breakfast cerial section at the grocery store.
44: Oddibe Kerfeld said at 12:29 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Don’t forget that the Dollar Store has a great deal on Fig Nortons.

http://www.theonion.com/content/from_print/dollar_store_has_great_deal
45: Mike said at 12:31 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Can you read, DGL? The rumor debunked on Snopes as “False”
was that KFC changed its name to eliminate the word “Fried,” which was commonly thought The post goes on to show that the word “Kentucky” was actually the larger problem. Shaun was right. Read the article: “In 1990, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, mired in debt took the unusual step of trademarking [its] name…anyone using the word ‘Kentucky’ for business reasons” would “have to pay licensing fees to the Commonwealth of Kentucky.” Shaun was right.

DGL said:

“Shaun refers to a Snopes KFC Name Change page with the comment, â€œI guess if I want the research done, I have to do it myself.â€

Iâ€™m not sure if he totally missed the point or is making an incredibly subtle and ironic joke, because the Snopes page is in their â€œThe Repository Of Lost Legendsâ€ (TROLL) section, which is a bunch of spoofs, the motivation for which is to show people that they shouldnâ€™t take single authority sources at face value, but should do their own research.

Kentucky never trademarked their name, the KFC rebranding had nothing to do with license payments, the Kentucky Derby was always the Kentucky Derby, and yes, Neil Diamond fans could still â€œKentucky Womanâ€ on radio playlists.”
46: Glen said at 12:33 pm on July 29th, 2008:
“Playing hungry. That’s how I became the first Chief to lead the NFL in rushing. But building up yardage really builds up my appetite. That’s why I like to tackle it with Hungry Man frozen dinners and pot pies…with big, extra portions that taste extra good. Take it from me, Christian Okoye.”

I will always and forever associate Hungry Man with The Nightmare.
47: Curtis said at 12:40 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Circus peanuts? I used to love those. Now the closest description I can think of is waxy styrofoam.
48: Vin said at 12:42 pm on July 29th, 2008:
I’d probably take out Fig Newtons, Pop Tarts and KFC. Fig Newtons, to me, always seemed more like one of those things that some people love and some people hate, regardless of age. Personally, I don’t care for ‘em. Pop Tarts and KFC, while definitely better when you are a kid, don’t quite rise to the level of Pixifood, IMO – they’re still tolerable.

I also totally agree with the addition of pretty much any sweet, candy-like cereal. When I was a kid, my mom wouldn’t let me eat that stuff, so whenever I stayed with a friend or relative it was like this big treat to be able to have it. Now, I’m only in my 20s, but not only does that crap look like a root-canal-in-a-box, but, seriously, who wants to eat candy in the morning?

Also Cadbury Creme eggs, as someone mentioned. I used to look forward to those every Easter. I had one recently and after one bite I threw the rest out.

My suggestion for Pixifood: McDonald’s. As a kid, a trip to McDonald’s is an experience, a reward for good behavior, something to look forward to. You eat those nuggets or burgers and they get little toys with them! How cool is that!

As an adult, McDonald’s something you eat only when you are desperate. The menu ranges from tolerable-in-a-pinch (some of the chicken, the breakfast biscuits) to downright awful (nearly all the burgers). And I’m not even getting into all the health issues.
49: Justyo said at 12:53 pm on July 29th, 2008:
This will probably elicit a bunch of nay sayers but I firmly nominate “Jaw Breakers” as a pixi-food. I got one for my son and I a few weeks back and as he started sucking in 3 yr. old bliss I could not believe how any human being could possibly keep that thing in their mouth long enough for it to um… dissolve. I spit mine out after a few minutes and reached for his but he refused to let it go. Also, I forgot about the “prize” in the center of those things. Ancient pixie-stick sugar, condensed into some kind of solid matter guaranteed to produce 6-7 cavities. Also, the half-life of those things has got to be a million years or so. I can picture a distant future of raised seas, cockroaches and millions of Jaw-Breakers.

At least I give them credit for truth in advertising. Though “tooth breakers” might be a bit more apt.
50: Andy said at 12:55 pm on July 29th, 2008:
To Mike, who seems to think he’s debunking DGL:

No, Shaun was not right. DGL is right. Click the link again. Go down to the bottom of the page and click the icon where it says “More information about this page.” The editors of Snopes reveal that they made the whole damn thing up, along with everything else in the TROLL section (including one that states Mr. Ed was played by a zebra), to prove you should never believe something based on only one “reliable” source.

So, not only have you proved their point, you’ve also made yourself look like a fool, even though DGL already spelled this out for you in his post. And I think you should apologize to him. Or, I guess, just keep taking everything you read as truth the first time you see it. I’ve got some great email forwards I can send you.
51: Al said at 1:02 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Just a brief personal story about Spagheti-Os (yes the meatball variety). As a kid, I LOVED them, couldn’t eat them often enough! Anyway, one night my Dad took me out to a concert after I had wolfed down a can of my favorite O’s. After a few hours we came home. I started feeling a little quesy, and quite a bit sweaty. Suddenly, as we came into the house, I felt like I was going to get sick.

I ran to the john, but didn’t quite make it, and threw up ALL OVER the Bathroom. Yup- toilet, floor, ceiling, mirror, sink, etc. Meatball Spagetti-O’s. My Mom was very angry at me, and made me clean it all up. Horrible. Never ate them again.

To this day, every time (and I am not exageratting EVERY TIME) I see a can of meatball Spaghetti-O’s in the supermarket, I recall that experience and start feeling a bit quesy. I’m 48. That’s a long time to remember.
52: Scott de B. said at 1:03 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Fig Newtons are great. As for why figs, you haven’t lived unless you’ve eaten fresh figs. A truly heavenly fruit. Hard to come by in the States, though.
53: Pixifoods Part I said at 1:07 pm on July 29th, 2008:
[...] the rest here: Pixifoods Part I [...]
54: Greg said at 1:21 pm on July 29th, 2008:
How about Slim-Jims?

As a child, tastes like spicy beef.

As an adult, tastes like heavily salted grease.
55: Monkeyhawk said at 1:23 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Cheez-Whiz –

Now with 20% More Whiz!

When I was a kid, that was Mom’s macaroni-and-~~cheese~~ “cheez” mix. She always served it with spinach and, with some apple cider vinegar, the spinach was pretty ~~good~~ not awful.

Since then, Kraft Mac & Cheese is the gold standard for kids’ macaroni and cheese. I hate that stuff. And I’m glad I hate that stuff. Because if I didn’t hate that stuff I’d eat it more often, and I just hate it.

Ah! But does anyone remember Cafe Lulu years ago down near the KU Med Center on 39th Street? Lulu actually had her 5-cheese macaroni and cheese on the menu. And that’s the way I make it now, combining swiss and cheddar and bleu and parmesan and provolone or mozzarella… whatever’s getting old in the fridge. Good stuff. Especially with spinach and some vinegar on the side.

But Cheez-Whiz? Velveeta? I always figured anything that’s required by law to define itself as “food” (as in, “imitation pasteurized processed partial-dairy food product”) might be wise to stay away from.

How ’bout maraschino cherries? Brach’s used to have the elegant chocolate-covered cherries; chocolate, white sugary goop, and a maraschino cherry — the Insulin Trifecta!

I went to breakfast a while back with a childhood friend and she saw Sifer’s Val-O-Milk cups for sale! She was really excited at the prospect for a moment, then said, “But I didn’t really like them all that much when I was a kid.” She opted out of the Pixifood temptation.

Wise girl.

Probably such wisdom is the reason she never let me get past 3rd Base when we dated in high school.

Maybe, if you go to St. Joseph, Missouri, you can still get Cherry Mash. I dunno. Didn’t like ‘em then and have no desire — not even tempted — to try one again.
56: Monkeyhawk said at 1:34 pm on July 29th, 2008:
There are two different kinds of people in the world:

– Those who pronounced them “Ju-Ju-Bees,” and…
– Those who pronounced them “Ju-Jubes.”

This was important for being cool in the fifth grade.

Problem is, after you sucked all the cinnamon coating off, you were left with a flavorless gelatinous pellet that offered nothing but gunk that stuck to your teeth. An ex-girlfriend once told me the key to kids’ candy is that it sticks to your teeth.

Milk Duds — does anyone even want to try one again to test their Pixifood bona fides? Not I.

About the time I got my first car, there was a small regional chain of burger joints, “The Floating Henry-Burger.” Their secret recipe is that they dropped skinny hamburger patties in deep fat and, when the patty floated to the top, it was done! Kids who liked Floating Henry-Burgers were the same ones who, in 5th Grade, called them “Ju-Jubes.”

Losers.
57: ajnrules said at 1:49 pm on July 29th, 2008:
It seems like almost all of the breakfast cereals targeted at kids are Pixie Foods: Fruity Pebbles, Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp, Captain Crunch, and the ultimate cereal Pixifood: Trix

As a child it tastes like: fruity goodness in every bite
As an adult it tastes like: cardboard with artificial flavoring

Yeah, one of the most famous ad campaigns actually has some truth to it. Anyways, I always felt that by forcibly denying the rabbit his Trix, they were adding to his obsession. It’s kind of like the forbidden fruit effect. Anyways, I remember thinking that if he actually had some Trix he wouldn’t love them so much anymore as early as 13 or so. I still love Froot Loops, though.

I still love KFC. Popeye’s may be good, but it can’t match up with the chicken from KFC. Perhaps it’s because I’m Chinese, and Chinese are all about KFC. I believe it’s the largest fast food chain in China…just as a word of warning for when you’re at the Olympics.
58: twayn said at 1:52 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Moon Pie (aka Scooter Pie)
As a child it tastes like: The perfect S’more without the hassle of a campfire.
As an adult it tastes like: A dog’s rubber hockey puck chew toy.
Tidbits: Created in 1917 by the Chattanooga Bakery as a snack for hungry coal miners, the Moon Pie consists of two graham cracker cookies surrounding a marshmallow center, coated with milk chocolate. My father bought me my first moon pie one summer as we visited family in Oklahoma when I was a lad of about six. It was the best thing I had ever tasted at the time, pure sugary, crunchy, chocolatey, chewy marshmallowey divinity, and eventually became an addiction, though not an easy addiction to maintain as the supply of moon pies in the Midwest was rather spotty. Your best bet for finding them was at truck stops and gritty, out-of-the-way gas stations run by guys named Merle or Lester. The last time I had one was a few years ago while on a business trip to Atlanta. I was in the hotel gift shop looking for a few trinkets to bring home to my kids when I turned the corner and there they were. I bought three of them, took them up to my room, and dug in. The first one, I tried to convince myself, wasn’t so bad, but not nearly as good as I remembered. In reality, the chocolate coating tasted like cocoa-laced candle wax, the graham cracker like stale All-Bran cereal, and the marshmallow center had the rough consistency of Flubber. By the time I finished the second I was feeling a little queasy. I had to throw away the third to stave off a full-blown diabetic coma, and I’m not even diabetic.
59: Chris said at 2:12 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Terrific post, Joe. I happened to see Candy Cigarettes the other day…I couldn’t believe they were still made. Even as kids in the 70s we had the sense to know that they were a ridiculous idea.

Re. the KFC name change, not sure who’s right about why they changed it (I always assumed it was to somehow make the product seem less unhealthy by not including “fried” as part of the name).

Similar changes were made by Kellogg’s cereals, though, when they dropped the names “Sugar Pops” (in favor of the healthier-sounding “Corn Pops”) and “Sugar Smacks” (which are now knows as “Honey Smacks”). Somehow, I don’t think I’d be begging mom to bring home Honey Smacks, but when it was called Sugar Smacks, I couldn’t get enough…
60: Pokey Joe said at 2:19 pm on July 29th, 2008:
I’m 45. I love Tang. For my money you’re just mixing it w/too much water…
61: Dan said at 2:35 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Lil’ Debbies. When you bite into an Oatmeal Pie as an adult, your teeth start vibrating from the sugar. It’s as if your fillings are picking up a broadcast from the pits of hell. And with the price of oil skyrocketing, I’m surprised Swiss Cake Rolls are still cheap. The icing must be 99% plastic. My Dad ate them everyday for years, but somehow, someway, never had a lil’ bypass.
62: Brad said at 2:36 pm on July 29th, 2008:
I’m in college, so I’m not sure I am eligible to get in on this old guy conversation, but I would like to add Jolly Ranchers to the list. A teacher’s treat later became sticky terribleness.
63: Robert Denby said at 2:40 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Starburst
As a child: chewy, fruity goodness
As an adult: filling removal system

Re: Pixie Stix- I get nostalgic thinking that, at one time, parents never batted an eye at giving their children a three foot long plastic tube filled with colored sugar as a treat.
64: Joe said at 2:59 pm on July 29th, 2008:
My nominee is “Star Crunch”

Pictured here: http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh83/esquivelanthony/star1.gif

As a kid: tastes like chocolate cookie crunchy madness
As an adult: tastes like sponge
65: Ryan said at 3:07 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Little Debbie’s–Nutty Bars– would be my pixifood.

As a child: Nutty Bars taste like chocolate/peanut butter bliss.
As an adult: These taste like peanut cardboard coco.
66: Minda's Mom said at 3:13 pm on July 29th, 2008:
I nearly died for a Necco wafer when I was 4 years old. Literally. I was choking on one. Luckily, my mom used the technique she had just learned at the PTA’s first aid class to dislodge the Necco wafer. Also, when I was 8 years old Tang gifted me with a world-class case of hives.
67: Windier E. Megatons said at 3:20 pm on July 29th, 2008:
I ate some cotton candy just the other day. Granted, I’m only 26.
68: TC said at 3:20 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Fig Newtons definitely aren’t as good now as they were yesteryear. However, real figs are damn delicious. Slice in half. Scoop out their guts. Stick some good bleu cheese in there. Wrap in bacon. This “snack” is so good you’ll imagine the Royals winning the pennant. This year.
69: caryn said at 3:33 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Razzles!!!

First it’s a candy, then it’s a gum.

it’s basically grainy sugar that gets stuck in every crevice in your teeth.

KFC is good depending on where you live. I wouldn’t eat it anywhere in New York, where we call it ‘Kentucky Fried Rat’ (and that was before the infamous KFC that got shut down by the department of health for being a rat convention).
70: paul said at 3:37 pm on July 29th, 2008:
I disagree that kids don’t work hard. Kids are always running around, growing, etc. They’re HUNGRY. The camping mention is key, I think. When I backpack, all of these foods would taste good. One one backpacking trip I had liquidy instant mashed potatoes, fake bacon bits, cheese and tuna all heavily salted and it was the best food ever. I think these foods don’t taste good now because we all just sit around reading Joe’s blog. If we’d get some exercise, we could probably handle a poptart or two.
71: Pecota Pete said at 3:51 pm on July 29th, 2008:
What about non-tradish foods like dirt or gum you find on the ground? Or even gum you put in the freezer to save the flavor.

When I was 17 I took a piece of gum chewed it then left it there for like three months came back and let me tell you- it wasn’t quite as good as when I used to do that when I was like 14 or 16.
72: Steve Buffum said at 3:55 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Peeps (and, for that matter, Circus Peanuts) may not be included as Pixifood because they were consider foul non-food even when my friends and I were young.

I might listen to testimony on Peeps, but not Circus Peanuts.

Fruity Pebbles (or their generic equivalent, “Fruit Shards”) should be on the list, though. Also strawberry Twizzlers.
73: Creston said at 4:09 pm on July 29th, 2008:
“How in the hell did anyone think it would be a good idea to give kids candy cigarettes as some sort of simulation of the real thing?”

Um, for the longest time, cigarettes were advertised as the epitome of manliness, and you could buy Marlboro backpacks and lunchboxes and whatever merchandise you wanted. Every car in F1 was a driving cigarette carton.

It took governments awhile (200 years) to figure out that inhaling SMOKE is bad for you, mmmkay?
74: Mike C said at 4:19 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Has anyone seen the Malcolm in the Middle where Francis ate 100 peeps in military school? Awesome.
75: Creston said at 4:20 pm on July 29th, 2008:
”

My nominee: Cadbury Cream Eggs

As a kid: The worldâ€™s best chocolate filled with sweet, happy goodness.

Now: Taste is indiscernible because all you can focus on is how badly it makes your teeth hurt.
”

Ugh, seconded!
76: Josh in DC said at 4:33 pm on July 29th, 2008:
There was an episode of Cheers in which Woody — the character, yes, but keep in mind, the actor had to actually do it — shoved an entire Snowball in his mouth. “They’re bite-sized!” he said.
77: David Dubbert said at 4:42 pm on July 29th, 2008:
what about tootsie rolls? How did these get left off? They’re so deliciously chewy and long lasting as a kid, and mildly resemble slugs to an adult.
78: Dusty said at 6:25 pm on July 29th, 2008:
i must be too young or something because i still LOVE:

candy cigarettes, fun dip, cotton candy, kfc, necco wafers AND pop tarts.

damn.
79: Pope said at 6:35 pm on July 29th, 2008:
What about those gigantic jaw breakers that literally became pixifood before you were done with them? They should get the self-fulfilling pixifood award or something…
80: RS said at 7:01 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Love this post, and I had a couple of entries come to mind:

Chicken Fried Steak

As a child: Gourmet succulence (and the happiest day of the week in the school cafeteria)
As an adult: Tastes like gravy waterboarding

I also throw fried bologna in there. I used to love fried bologna sandwiches when I was a kid and it was an added plus that I could even cook them. As an adult, just the smell of bologna makes me nauseaus. Also, whoever came up with the Cadbury Eggs reference is spot-on.
81: Steve from Cleve said at 7:18 pm on July 29th, 2008:
If you don’t like Cadbury Cream Eggs, you’re a communist.

Also, Jolly Ranchers are still good, but you need to accept the fact that they will make your teeth sticky, and they will make everything taste like Jolly Rancher for the next 30 hours or so.
82: Marco said at 7:19 pm on July 29th, 2008:
I second (third? fifth?) the cadbury creme egg suggestion. (BTW, does anyone remember when cadbury reduced the size of the creme eggs and then lied, claiming they hadn’t?)

Also, I’m a little disappointed that my suggestion of the bologna and cheese sandwich from the first pixipost didn’t make the cut. I can remember with great fondness getting a bologna and american cheese (two slices of each, alternated) sandwich on white bread.

Now bologna tastes like sliced congealed pan drippings. Six shades of awful.
83: Chipmaker said at 7:29 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese

As a child: cheezy, creamy glop.
As an adult: roadkill.

This is specifically for KRAFT brand Mac ‘n Cheese; there are other, good-tasting brands, particularly Annie’s. How vacuum-packed, powdered cheese can go stale if not completely bad is a mystery. Butter and milk fresh from the cow cannot save this material.

McDonald’s Big Mac

As a child: three-course gourmet dinner.
As an adult: compost heap.

Many, many years ago I worked at a McDonald’s. We were entitled to one sandwich, gratis, on our break if working 4+ hours. One day I decided to have a Big Mac, wondering why I had not eaten one in a very, very long time (a decade at least). One bite reminded me why I hadn’t eaten one in a very, very long time. It’s like a failure by committee — the burger patties are okay, the bun is okay (if too much), the cheese is pretty good, the lettuce is okay, the onion bits are fair, the pickles are okay, the ketchup and mustard are just doing their thing — no problems. There is the secret sauce, though, which the Big Mac cannot do without and yet which utterly destroys the sensory experience. I guess that’s why it’s a secret.
84: Jhohnny said at 7:54 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Let’s not forget the most important part of the candy cigarette experience, and that is, when you put a fresh one in your mouth, blow firmly so that a puff of smoke in the form of powdered sugar comes out the other end. Just like Dad does it.
85: Nate said at 8:28 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Oh man, Jolly Ranchers… that has to be the quintessential young person pixifood… good call Brad, I used to love those things and then I had one recently (also in college) and I couldn’t believe how disgusting I thought it was…

There is probably a very narrow age range that could appreciate this one but does anyone else remember Wardheads candy? The kind that tastes really really sour on purpose for like 20 seconds until you get down to the regular hard candy underneath? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warheads_(confectionery)

Granted the sour part was only fun in a masochistic way even as a kid, I used to think the candy was pretty good. “Used to” being the most relevant words.
86: Pedro Borbon's Mighty Arm said at 8:32 pm on July 29th, 2008:
James H,

I am a native of that “nowhere town” of Corbin, KY and work there today. The “fantastic chicken” to which you refer was the creation of Harlan D. Sanders at what was then known as Sanders Court and Cafe. It was a prime traveler’s stop back in the day before the interstate. My father and uncle operated a service station across the road from Mr. Sanders’ (he wasn’t the Colonel then) establishment and told our family many stories from their acquaintance with him. When I-75 came through the area with exits a few miles away both north and south, he saw the writing on the wall and sold out. He knew he had a good thing with his chicken recipe and eventually sold it to an enterprising young Kentuckian named John Y. Brown. H.D. Sanders became the Colonel and Kentucky Fried Chicken was born. No doubt the quality of the food suffered in mass production; the Colonel rather famously later opined that the fast-food version of the gravy “tasted like wallpaper paste”.

In a sports-related aside, John Y. Brown sold his interest in Kentucky Fried Chicken for many millions, and bought the Kentucky Colonels of the ABA. They won the title in 1975, but he thought the price of admission too high when the league merged into the NBA a couple of years later and folded that proud franchise in exchange for what I remember to be no more than $3 million. That piece of short-sightedness has long been rued in our state. He went on to buy the Boston Celtics. Long-time fans of that legendary franchise would rather endure a widespread leprosy epidemic than relive his association with the C’s.

I think I speak for most Corbinites when I say we would rather be geopositioned as one hour south of Lexington, KY than one hour north of Knoxville, TN. Also, just speaking personally, I still love chicken-fried (or country-fried, depending on your geopositioning) steak, and Little Debbie oatmeal cakes. And, in the interests of full disclosure, although I think KFC chicken is more than edible, I prefer Bojangles. I hope I don’t get run out of town.
87: Chris said at 8:38 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Caryn,

Great call with Razzles! I had completely forgotten about them!

Jhonny- you nailed it with the “puff of smoke” candy cigarette experience. I remember clearly doing that every time!
88: Mark H said at 9:03 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Johnny, you beat me to it! Every once in a while I find cany cigs, but they’re usually just the edible candy sticks. The REAL gems were the ones you mentioned, that were rounds of bubble gum, with a layer of powered sugar, wrapped in a cig wrapper. You stick the end in your mouth and blow… Poof! a “puff” of smoke.

You can stil find them frm time to time, but they’re pretty rare these days.
89: Dr.Funkenstein said at 9:11 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Charleston Chew
As a kid: the candy bar that won’t end!
As an adult: Why is this not dissolving in my mouth?
90: tactful said at 9:20 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Pixifoods Part I…

Bookmarked your post over at Blog Bookmarker.com!…
91: Kelly said at 9:32 pm on July 29th, 2008:
I nominate Pop Rocks.

As a kid: LOUD sugary tickling awesomness

As an adult: Sort of like putting exploding pebbles dipped in acid in your mouth

My best friend from childhood decided for my 28th birthday to send me a whole box of our favorite candy including these. I popped those suckers in my mouth and oh my god. Couldn’t spit them out, couldn’t swallow them, just sat there and felt weird for 12 seconds, called my friend, and told her she’d be getting a case of Laffy Taffy in the mail.

The urban legend of Mikey from life cereal dying after eating the pop rocks and drinking Pepsi was just a fantastic use of pop culture in my opinion.
92: John Stodalka said at 10:03 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Tang mixed into a straight vodka ain’t bad.
93: Alan said at 10:39 pm on July 29th, 2008:
I’m from Kentucky. I went to Kentucky (UK). I watched the Colonels growing up – Dan Issel, Louie Dampier, Wendell Ladner, Artis Gilmore… And I say, Krispy Kreme.
94: David Wintheiser said at 11:23 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Sorry, Robert Denby – I started keeping a tray of Starburst at my cube when I realized that most of the folks in the office don’t care for chocolate and have people stopping by every day to grab some. Granted, the more exotic ‘tropical fruits’ flavors can get a bit weird, but the classic four-flavor Starbursts are as cool as ever.

I’d nominate my own, but pretty much everyone else has covered the ones I’d have nominated. Closest I can come without repeating someone else’s suggestion is cream soda, and I know adults who absolutely love it.
95: John R said at 11:28 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Chipmaker, I question your memory of the Big Mac. There’s no ketchup or mustard on a Big Mac. If you like there’s a song I can teach you to help you remember the ingredients.
96: Scotty said at 11:41 pm on July 29th, 2008:
Don’t go messin’ with my Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda. I love that stuff.
And that Krispy Kreme voter is in thin icing. The only thing better than catching them right off the conveyor belt is grilling a not-so-fresh one yourself in just a little bit of butter and topping it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It wasn’t health food to begin with, so don’t worry about it. Try it. You’ll thank me later.
As for Mac & Cheese, I lived on that as a kid and now it’s practically the only thing that keeps my 4-year-old daughter from starving. It’s still pretty darn good in my book … but you have to fix it properly. Neither my wife nor my mother-in-law have any idea how to make it right and even my 4-year-old can tell. If you boil the noodles more than 8 minutes max, just throw them away. It’s ruined. And go heavier on the butter and lighter on the milk.
97: Jeremy said at 7:17 am on July 30th, 2008:
Monkeyhawk mentioned maraschino cherries, with which I heartily agree.

As a kid: Bright red fruity goodness in your Shirley Temple.
As an adult: Two parts cough syrup, one part power steering fluid.

I was maybe twelve when I learned how they actually make those things. I still don’t understand why anyone would do that to a cherry.
98: Jason said at 7:39 am on July 30th, 2008:
Lotta good mentions here, but I have to disagree with a few before bringing up my own…

Kraft Mac & Cheese: Scotty is absolutely right…it’s all in who’s making it. My wife couldn’t make a box of that stuff taste good if she added duck confit. But if I make it…maybe it’s how I stir the noodles, I dunno, but it tastes damn good. Not quite as good as when I was a child and I lived off the stuff, but still a cheap and easy meal.

Whoever said microwave burritos has cut a hole into my heart…the key to those is to drown them in butter after they come out of the microwave…healthy I know, but still delicious.

My pixifood…probably skirting the parameters a bit here, but I nominate Coca-Cola. I still drink the stuff out of habit, but as a kid, it’s a sweet fizzy reward that you can look forward to for a day. As an adult, it’s a syrupy mess that should only be used as a mixer for cheap bourbon.
99: Brent said at 8:02 am on July 30th, 2008:
Jason:

I was going to say Coca Cola too. I used to love it as a kid, but too much of a good thing just killed it for me. It happened to me during finals of my first year of law school. Drinking 7 or 8 Cokes/day is probably not too healthy and after a while, they all start tasting like sugar. So I finally had to switch to Diet Coke. Now, if I HAVE to drink an actual Coke (because my wife forgot to get DC at the store), it tastes just like drinking liquid sugar AND it gives me a stomach ache after half a can.
100: Nathan said at 8:03 am on July 30th, 2008:
Brent-

What building in the loop has the Big League Chew? I have a good friend here in Chicago (a native Kansas Citian as well) who loves the stuff, but has a hard time finding it.
101: James said at 9:42 am on July 30th, 2008:
I do believe that the next vote should be what is the biggest pixifood,

Joe, when the vote is over for pitchers, this has to be next.
102: Dru said at 9:53 am on July 30th, 2008:
I’m a little shocked that no one has mentioned Flavor Ice. Frozen sugar water was pretty much the finest summer treat ever when I was a kid. But only blue, green or red. Orange sucked. Now I’m too terrified of diabetes to try them.
103: hopeforCleveland said at 10:33 am on July 30th, 2008:
Ovaltine sucks. So do their commercials.
104: ThatsRich said at 10:42 am on July 30th, 2008:
Rather than a Pozcars-style vote, I think the list should remain comprehensive.

What we really need is a stat. A Pixi-food Parameter, if you will.

Your PP equals the number of Pixifoods you still enjoy periodically as an adult. There would be a scale.

0-1 You were probably the kind of kid who not only ate, but liked your brussels sprouts

2-3 A little childlike indulgence never hurt anyone

4-5 You’re either an arrested adolescent or you’re trying to increase the heart failure statistics for your demographic

6+ You should be carring a pocket defibrulator at all times

I would also nominate “old tyme Christmas candy” for the next round.

In particular, the “old tyme Christmas candy” was the epitome of sugary goodness and Christmas morning all rolled into one. In our small town, Santa made his annual visit to our Fire Hall and passed out small paper sacks of “Christmas candy” and peanuts in the shell – mixed. Given the ultra-sticky surface of most of the candy, every piece carried a liberal dusting of peanut parts. We didn’t care.

As an adult it all tastes like it’s been sitting in Grandma’s candy dish since 1952. Even without the peanut dust.
105: Brent said at 11:20 am on July 30th, 2008:
Nathan:

10 S. Riverside Plaza, building is on top of the back entrance (Madison Street entrance) to Union Station.
106: Alex said at 12:13 pm on July 30th, 2008:
I almost emailed Joe this one: Astropops

As a child it tastes like: A sweet flavored nectar of the gods, almost made slide, with a hint of outer space.

As an adult it tastes like: A too sweet, unflavored semi-solid mass, with a hint of outer space.

Tidbits: Sold by the ice cream man, these things were sugar cones on popsicle sticks. I don’t mean sugar cones, like the best kind of cone for ice cream. I mean a solid, narrow 3″ cone made of sugar. Really. Ingredient #1 was sugar, and ingredient #2 was corn syrup. I think that ingredient #3 was another form of sugar.

The fun of these things was that they were no exactly solid. Rather, they were hard, but with some heat and some saliva, they’d become a little flexible, even stretchy. Add the disgusting red and green artificial colors, and you had a translucent mess.

They should have come with a warning, though. While “soft” if you bit down too hard, they wouldn’t let go of your teeth.

How bad were they? Well, even kids eventually realized that they were too much. The first few were special and well loved, but few went back and had them the next year.
107: bennoj said at 2:38 pm on July 30th, 2008:
One of the benefits of being a diabetic is that I can’t go back and try many of these things again to ruin my memories of them.

My personal theory is that one of the last effects of puberty is a major change to the way taste buds work. The ’sweet’ area of the tongue loses it’s dominance and ’salt’ and ‘bitter’ areas increase theirs.

I’d also take Fig Newtons off the list. As long as you keep them from drying out, the cookie (or ‘cake’ as one advertising campaign claimed) part stays soft. And to respond to one early comment, I, for one, have eaten plain old figs many times.
108: Bellylard said at 3:00 pm on July 30th, 2008:
Some of this stuff tastes worse because they use high-fructose corn syrup instead of sugar. Coke and Pepsi are much better when you get it kosher or outside this country where sugar is still used.

I’m definitely on that diabetes/heart attack list, I still eat like I’m a five-year old. Well, except for the habenero sauce I ladle on things.

Wonder bread is pixiefood. I don’t bother with that stuff.
Andy Capp’s Pub fries have a flavor such that you really need a good imagination to remember there’s supposed to be potatoes in there somehow. I ate those all the time, can’t imagine why I had to.
109: Dusty said at 5:11 pm on July 30th, 2008:
what is wrong with you people !!!

flavor ice?!?@!?@ (aka mr. freezes aka otter pops aka whatever else they are called). i could still eat like 16 of those things in one sitting.

and astropops ?? only the best sucker ever !!!!

macaroni and cheese? still amazing.

you have all put a tear in this man’s eye today :’(
110: Phil Gurnee said at 5:21 pm on July 30th, 2008:
Captain Crunch was my favorite breakfeast. As an adult it shreads my palette faster then a scorching pizza.

Still like Fig Newtons and once every 3 months I’ll partake in KFC. My cats love the biscuits.
111: bobby said at 5:50 pm on July 30th, 2008:
110 comments and no love for the Fluffernutter? Too sweet for lunch but perfect for dessert.
112: Damien said at 6:32 pm on July 30th, 2008:
The story I got was that Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC because Kentucky the state decided to start charging royalties for the use of the name
113: dq said at 10:18 pm on July 30th, 2008:
Frosted Flakes – to a kid “They’re great!!!!!”

To an adult – fake sugar and fake cardboard
114: MattieShoes said at 10:19 pm on July 30th, 2008:
I didn’t like most of the things listed even as a kid. Tang would be the exception (and I still like it!).

As for the turkey TV dinners, I think it’s the food that’s changed, not the taste buds. The ones from my childhood that came in a metal tray and took 45 minutes to cook in a conventional oven — Thoes were good. As soon as they went to plastic microwave stuff, the quality went out the window.

Here’s one for you — bubble gum ice cream. I thought that was the COOLEST when I was little, but even then, I think I realized it wasn’t really that good tasting, it was just COOL.
115: youthwithoutyouth said at 11:30 pm on July 30th, 2008:
Ah, the memories. I can remember riding my bike to the corner drug store and buying comic books. I would always have a large cherry vanilla phosphate, and i would pick up a few boxes of Lemonheads and Boston Baked Beans, as well as a handful of atomic fireballs to suck and munch on as I perused the continuing adventures of the X-men. Like-a-maid stix were also on the menu, as well as button candy and scratch and sniff stickers from another store nearby. Peeps and Cadbury were a must at Easter. What about the gigantic pinwheel lolipops found on local family road trip vacations? It all sounds like tooth decay waiting to happen now.
116: Pixifoods said at 9:10 am on July 31st, 2008:
[...] you thought were awesome as a child but turns out really wasn’t. Their descriptions are [...]
117: alex said at 12:53 pm on July 31st, 2008:
How about a post concerning food that we hated as kids but love as adults? I nominate Dark Chocolate.
118: Pixifoods Part I said at 4:57 pm on July 31st, 2008:
[...] Original A share for a humalog that represents growth [...]
119: BrianGriffinStillLovesYou said at 6:24 pm on July 31st, 2008:
Pop-Tarts: as a kid, raw was great. As an adult of some middling but incomprehensible age, they MUST be toasted in a real toaster-oven, and they MUST be brown sugar cinnamon (& NOT the low-fat variety). Additionally, they MUST be eaten as soon as they are cool enough not to peel the skin off off the roof of the mouth, or the carmelized sugar and warm tenderness becomes hard, flat, only slightly-edible slate.
120: Richard Aronson said at 12:50 am on August 1st, 2008:
I have to concur with the Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese comments. There’s a new kind (Amy’s, I think, mostly organic and has a rabbit on the box, which amuses the lupine lover I married) which is drastically better. But after I first made real Mac ‘n’ Cheese (following Joy of Cooking recipes, three different types of cheeses) and the daughter wouldn’t touch it, I realized Kraft is bad. And the thing is, with most of those kinds of freeze dried foods, like Top Ramen, with a little creativity you can manage to make them okay, adding some mushrooms or scrambled eggs, add some real spices instead of the packaged spices. But Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese is unimprovable.

And I’m absolutely in agreement with Spaghetti O’s with meatballs. I used to be able to eat that every day. Last time I tried it, I was ashamed of myself. I’m right there with the comments on Cotton Candy, and most of the candies.

But the pixifood nobody has mentioned, a staple of far too many camping trips, was Chung King Chow Mein. I have no idea why I used to like it. I guess it was just that when you’re camping, you’re usually hiking a lot, and so hungry that anything with calories tastes good.
121: Harv said at 7:35 am on August 1st, 2008:
Regarding the name change from “Kentucky Fried Chicken” to “KFC” – I think this was made because the pieces of food that you get CANNOT be identified as chicken. Based on their shape and size, you are not getting wings, drumsticks, thighs or breasts…you are getting chopped up parts of some alien chicken tasting creature.
122: Why Joe Posnanski Rules the World « The Sap is Running said at 9:46 am on August 1st, 2008:
[...] Joe rules the world because of posts like this: [...]
123: Creston said at 11:34 am on August 1st, 2008:
” you have all put a tear in this manâ€™s eye today :â€™( ”

At least we’re not clogging your bases, Dusty!
124: JB said at 2:54 pm on August 1st, 2008:
The only explanation is that the food conglomerates have obviously changed the once-perfect ingredients of all of these once-perfect foods.
125: Marshall said at 4:21 pm on August 1st, 2008:
Joe,

Thanks for the link to the Hungry Man website. I can’t get anything done at work while trying to dominate the Hungry Man Pool Hall and pressing my luck against the “cruel, calculating casino dealer.”
126: John R said at 9:19 pm on August 3rd, 2008:
How are people still getting the KFC name change wrong here? It’s been linked to several times on this page. The state of Kentucky did not start asking for royalties. That’s a joke page made by Snopes to show the folly of relying on authorities without doing your own research.

For the record here’s the snopes page debunking Harv’s claim that they no longer sell “chickens” so were forced to rename.

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/kfc.asp

And here’s the page which (falsely) claims that the name change was spurred by Kentucky’s money grab.

http://www.snopes.com/lost/kfc.asp

Again, that above link is pure hokum. Here’s where they let you in on the joke.

http://www.snopes.com/lost/false.asp
127: sam jackson's love child said at 10:06 am on August 21st, 2008:
“Kentucky Fried Chicken
As a child it tastes like: Picnics in the park.
As an adult it tastes like: Salt.”

from someone that spent a few months workintg at KFC to support his volunteer habit:

original recipe chicken: 3 pounds of salt per 25 pounds of flour.
128: Deacon Street said at 11:29 am on August 21st, 2008:
Pop-Tarts? Pop-Tarts are always good. Cold or Hot.

Candy Corn as a child was awesome. I could knock a bag of em’ in a sitting. As an adult, I nearly threw up in my kids Halloween bag.
129: T-dawg said at 11:49 am on August 21st, 2008:
The first thing that came to mind for me when reading this blog–OOZE TOOBZ.
As a child tastes like: fun and fruity fabulousness
as an adult tastes like: toxic waste

I used to consume massive amounts of this ‘candy’. I think it’s basically pure high fructose corn syrup, plus cancer-inducing dyes and flavors.

Makes me gag just thinking about it!
130: What is a Pixifood « THE FIRE WIRE said at 12:09 pm on August 21st, 2008:
[...] What is a Pixifood Pixifood (PIKZ-ee-food), noun: Any food substance that is highly pleasant to the taste as a child and tastes shockingly unpleasant once you become an adult. Â Â Read more HERE. [...]
131: What's a "Pixifood"? - Sherdog Mixed Martial Arts Forums said at 12:33 pm on August 21st, 2008:
[...] always run far from those. Spaghetti-O’s, FunDip, candy cigarettes and Tang also make the cut. Pixifoods Part I Are there any other foods you loved as a kid but hate now? __________________ What do monkeys [...]
132: Sally said at 12:55 pm on August 21st, 2008:
Found this article from a Pop Candy link. May I just add Elio’s pizza, Lipton’s Ring-o-Noodle soup, and Kool-Aid to the list?

Elio’s Pizza: then – pizza goodness; now – cardboard
Ring-O-Noodle soup: then – hearty soup; now – water with noodles
Kool-Aid: then – delicious juices; now – water with a hint of flavor
133: donner said at 1:07 pm on August 21st, 2008:
Geez, I feel so stupid…I eat a LOT of the foods on this list regularly…dinty moore, spaghetti-0’s, KFC, snowballs, Pop-Tarts…I have a jar of fluff in my cupboard right now…what does that say about me, other than the fact that I look like the Numa Numa kid?

I would have to add –

Count Chocula cereal (my brother ate 5 bowls in one sitting and got hives),

Wax bottle drink, (wax lips for that matter),

Ding Dongs (I would peel all the chocolate coating off the cake and eat it last..I miss those foil wrappers),

and my FAVORITE Pixifood – Space Stix (the chocolate ones were the best, but I remember the peanut butter ones too)…Homer Simpson receives them in a long lost package from his mother…awesome…
134: Samuel John Klein said at 4:55 pm on August 21st, 2008:
How about liver and onions? Seriously.

When I was but a neat thing, that was the stuff. It was like steak for little kids. Got ketchup? Then you got steak sauce with training wheels! My mom made none better.

Today? It’s like eating badly done leather, that was used in the anminal from which it was taken to filter toxins out of thier blood.
135: Nephaline said at 4:57 pm on August 21st, 2008:
I’ve always wondered what Moon Pies were. In Canada they are called Wagon Wheels. When I was a kid I would see ads in comic books and commercials on American stations for Hostess Twinkies,Cupcakes , Fruit Pies and Ho-hos. Oh, I was desperate to try them! Where could I find these magical tasty treats? I searched the local 7-11 in vain every week when I went to spend my allowance on Mojos,bazooka joe gum, and Sweet-Tarts. No surprise that when I finally had a Twinkie and a cupcake, at age 22, I found them stale and revolting. I’ve never had Neco Wafers, Dinty Moore Stew, or Beenie Weanies, and never plan to.
As a child, I used to eat tang crystals and koolaid crystals.I once attempted to make my own drink using pixie sticks and Lik-A-Stik paks. The result was flavourless slightly sugary water. Of course if you’ve ever made kool-aid without the recommended amount of sugar, you know that without the intense sweetness, there isn’t much left to taste.
What about Fizz Candies(filled with excessive amounts of baking soda0, and those horrible cheap halloween candies in the orange and black wrappers. I guess they don’t qualify as Pixie food because even as a kid, I can’t recall anyone that admitted liking them. We only ate them as a last resort, and the Halloween candy was always old and pulled out your fillings.
136: Lisa said at 7:37 pm on August 21st, 2008:
I agree about almost everything on here except Coke (which I LOVE!!!) and fig newtons. i’m sorry, but like that other person said, if they’re not stale, they’re delicious to me! I like razzles, too, i’m ashamed to admit…….I also was a grape now-n-later junkie as a kid. i used to eat those by the case.

oh and you forgot chef boy-ar-dee’s ravioli. I used to LOVE that stuff as a kid. I had some a couple of years ago and it was just awful. and of course the masochist in me said, “cut one open and see what i looks like inside.”….needless to say, i wish i hadn’t done that, because what i saw made gag, primarily because i couldn’t figure out what i was looking at…..
137: A Thursday List « Lip Smacking Wit said at 10:00 pm on August 21st, 2008:
[...] and how I now prefer vanilla?Â Well, as seen on Popcandy, I guess there is a word of it– Pixifood, which is “any food substance that is highly pleasant to the taste as a child and tastes [...]
138: Susan said at 10:00 pm on August 21st, 2008:
I’m so sorry to hear about Fun Dip, that was my favorite candy. Thanks for the warning so that I won’t ruin my happy memories. I wonder what those wax bottles with colored sugar water taste like now?
139: Samuel John Klein said at 9:34 am on August 22nd, 2008:
@ LISA:

oh and you forgot chef boy-ar-deeâ€™s ravioli. I used to LOVE that stuff as a kid. I had some a couple of years ago and it was just awful. and of course the masochist in me said, â€œcut one open and see what i looks like inside.â€â€¦.needless to say, i wish i hadnâ€™t done that, because what i saw made gag, primarily because i couldnâ€™t figure out what i was looking atâ€¦..

As a matter of fact, I thought all those canned Italianate foods … SpaghettiO’s, Ravioli, what have you … were horrid from the start. Though I didn’t know what al dente meant then, I now know that they are so far away from there that it’s a toll call. I detested Chef Boy-ar-dee and Franco-American canned pastas, and I was a kid who’d eat anything!

Canned ravioli ruined me for ravioli until I was well into my thirties. Oh, what I missed …
140: Lisa said at 1:56 pm on August 22nd, 2008:
@samuel. i never was a big fan of the spaghetti-o’s, not sure why, but i did love the ravioli. but you’re right – in retrospect, the noodles were so soft and mushy, they probably shouldn’t even be considered pasta. UGH!! i despise mushy pasta. i went to a shindig at my cousin’s house last year and one of the many dishes there was spaghetti. the sauce smelled sooooooo good, i just loaded up my plate….well…..the noodles were so overcooked it was not to be believed…..you should’ve seen my trying to figure out how i was gonna get rid of this huge plate without anybody seeing me throw it away!! lolololol god, it was disgusting!!! …..i actually just now threw up a little bit in the back of my mouth just thinking about it…….

and i still haven’t recovered my taste for ravioli…….
141: Samuel John Klein said at 10:09 am on August 23rd, 2008:
@ LISA:

Mushy pasta will ruin it every time. That’s true. My wife makes marvelous quick pasta meals but if that pasta gets a little too overcooked then it’s a very long dinner indeed.

I hope you get over your ravioliphobia eventually. So many different kinds now, artisan fillings and such … you’re really missing out.
142: Bob Mercer said at 10:17 am on August 25th, 2008:
Back when I was a kid, there was a drink that was made by dropping a tablet like an alka-seltzer into a cup, and adding water. It was called â€œFizziesâ€, and was described as a â€œfun, effervescent drink tabletâ€, popular in the 50â€™s & 60â€™s. We used to drink it in our aluminum drinking glasses. Yuck. Even without the Cyclamates, just the thought of it now makes me sick.
143: Pixifoods! « Sifu Tweety’s Crap Stove said at 11:45 am on August 26th, 2008:
[...] Delicious as a child, utterly disgusting as an adult: Fluff As a child it tastes like: Marshmallow goodness. As an adult it tastes like: [...]
144: momolo said at 11:51 am on August 26th, 2008:
I’m surprised no one mentioned FRUIT PIES!

I remember they were such a treat; fresh out of their wax paper wrapping, full of gooey, sugary, somewhat fruity filling.

Then I split one with my brother this past summer. Gross.
145: Wiley said at 12:11 pm on August 26th, 2008:
American cheese. As a child it tasted like cheese, as an adult it tastes like soft plastic.
146: Wanderinglady said at 12:20 pm on August 26th, 2008:
Has anyone mentioned Mountain Dew? I’m still amazed that this was my favorite soda as a kid. Even without the change to HFCS, I think it would still be awful to the adult me.

Twinkies, Suzy Qs, the same.

Some of the things on the list I didn’t like even as a kid: Tang, Fig Newtons, Fluff, Necco wafers. Same for McDonald’s apple pies (not on the list), which I know some people still love.
147: abc said at 12:21 pm on August 26th, 2008:
Most of those foods you tasted as a child were much more wholesome than they are now.

Food companies have taken all of the taste out of things like Cap’n Crunch and Twinkies in the name of profit margins.

So this whole “Pixifood” thing is not really valid. It’s really not your taste that has changed- it’s the horrible way they make these foods today.
148: februarymakeup said at 12:55 pm on August 26th, 2008:
Where at Cleveland do you live, son! We should totally hang!
149: O’DonnellWeb - Polluting the homeschool blogosphere since 2001 » Blog Archive » Pixifoods said at 1:14 pm on August 26th, 2008:
[...] dead on with most of these. I say most. Pop Tarts are still tasty. They are also 80% fat, so I tend to avoid them. Also, [...]
150: Vic Nebulous said at 1:52 pm on August 26th, 2008:
I submit the following:

Candy Corn

As a kid, it tasted like all of Halloween’s tasty goodness rolled into a tiny, colorful morsel.

As an adult, it tastes like ancient sugar mixed with some kind of nasty OTC medicine.
151: nicky said at 2:41 pm on August 26th, 2008:
Totally fun post.

Did you check out the MetaFilter community enjoying what you wrote?
http://www.metafilter.com/74410/It-tastes-like-burning
152: Hemi said at 6:52 pm on August 26th, 2008:
Oh that Dinty Moore stew is half salt. Yuck, never again.
153: jen said at 7:03 pm on August 26th, 2008:
I loved reading these!

What about those cow tails? They used to be my favorite childhood treat. I used to think it was so creamy and delicious, even now I get excited when I see them at a grocer. I buy one thinking it’ll bring back fond memories, but I’m always reminded of the dentist. The texture of that middle filling stuff… I don’t even know what it is, is grainy like the stuff dentist’s use to clean your teeth. I still buy them thinking I’ll get one that’ll be creamy and not chalky. I should just give up.
154: News » It tastes like burning said at 7:09 pm on August 26th, 2008:
[...] Pixifoods: Any food substance that is highly pleasant to the taste as a child and tastes shockingly unpleasant once you become an adult. [...]
155: Jana said at 7:11 pm on August 26th, 2008:
Kentucky Fried Chicken was invented in Utah. Ha!
156: f00die said at 8:00 pm on August 26th, 2008:
I have to agree with the placement of KFC on this list, except the description.

As a kid: If I knew the secret 11 herbs and spices, my parents could make this every night!

As an adult: Now I know the secret recipe is… 10 dirty fingers and 1 runny nose.

The sad thing is that my roommate still loves his KFC, even when there are much better places around. Then again, he likes Arby’s, so I’m not that surprised.
157: squawky said at 8:02 pm on August 26th, 2008:
I do agree with much of the list, but I think there’s an “adult” use for Tang that is often very overlooked — properly mixed Tang is a fantastic mixer for Jack Daniels (think “rum and coke”, only it’s “Jack and Tang”)

Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it – I was rather dubious but was convinced after trying it once.
158: freddy said at 8:16 pm on August 26th, 2008:
Fruit Rollups are pretty nasty. I didn’t love them as a kid, but now I find them revolting.
159: amy said at 8:26 pm on August 26th, 2008:
Fig newtons are good and they are good for you, Also Pop tarts are good too what is with you.

you were right about bennie weeines they are gross
160: bullfrog said at 8:32 pm on August 26th, 2008:
Man, even as a kid, Tang, sucked. Does anybody else remember “SPACE FOOD STICKS!” from then? They sold ‘em in the grocery store and we kids demanded them, and our parents bought them and we sat around and acted like astronauts while chomping (choking) the things down with the required Tang. Then we ate jiffypop.

Beeny Weenies have remained a ritual between old friends over the years though, and it is considered a rite of passage for one of the youngsters to consume that little can of chemically-laced animal spare parts with a real Dr. Pepper with sugar. Kids these days are too wussed out to just eat sardines from the can.
161: Fred Kiesche said at 5:17 am on August 27th, 2008:
Hah! Good stuff, especially about the trading card gum! You got to wonder how you ever were able to chew it.

Now, cotton candy still is an occasional treat (mostly when my daughter wants one, but can’t finish it). Dinty Moore? When we camp, we find it better to do it from scratch! Heck, even some of the dehydrated backpacking meals are better than that stuff.

Fig Newtons, though. They are still good. Oddly enough, only something I buy when we go on vacation.
162: Clair said at 7:09 am on August 27th, 2008:
Speaking of Big League Chew and it’s “man sized wads”…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GyEkvqtHPs

Even though I think it should be included, Capn Crunch is still a rare guilty pleasure for me. I have to let my gums heal a few months between bowls of the shredded glass.
163: rick_of_racy.com said at 9:44 am on August 27th, 2008:
Hmm, I still like fig newtons and spaghetti Os. I don’t know why. Spaghetti O’s look like nuclear waste. I’d also say that if anyone nowadays trys the gum that was in baseball cards it may be a little old and stale. Well, it was old and stale at the time, so maybe time softened it up a little. I doubt it.
164: Czeltic Girl » As a child tastes like: Coconut cream filled pink cakes. As an adult tastes like: Triple bypass surgery. said at 10:06 am on August 27th, 2008:
[...] Pixifood (PIKZ-ee-food), noun: Any food substance that is highly pleasant to the taste as a child and tastes shockingly unpleasant once you become an adult. [...]
165: Food Memories - Ideas Blog - NYTimes.com said at 10:25 am on August 27th, 2008:
[...] | A sports writer blogs whimsically and at length on how childhood food favorites taste different when you’re an adult. Baseball card gum: [...]
166: Mantelli said at 10:54 am on August 27th, 2008:
Baloney sandwiches on white bread with mayonnaise. They were the joy of my young life, and now the very thought of that nitrate-packed, gummy blandness makes me shudder!
167: Bisbo said at 11:23 am on August 27th, 2008:
How about Cool-Aid?

As a child: a cool, sugary toxic colored drink that tasted like some kind of fruit.

As an adult: a cool, sugary toxic colored drink that tastes like a urine sample. Mmmmm.
168: Jessica said at 12:35 pm on August 27th, 2008:
I think Cookie Crisp cereal should be added to this list. When I was a kid the thought of eating tiny chocolate chip cookies for breakfast made me beg my parents incessantly at the grocery store. Due to the cereal’s obvious nutritional deficits it rarely made it into the shopping cart. But on those rare occasions when I did get it, damn it tasted good! When I got older, had my own apartment and happened to spot it while grocery shopping, I bought Cookie Crisp. Damn it tasted bad! I don’t know what I was thinking. Was I just caught up in the idea of eating dessert for breakfast or have my taste buds changed dramatically?
169: camille said at 1:18 pm on August 27th, 2008:
I suspect that Yoo-Hoo should be on that list. I’m from Canada and never had it as a kid, but my husband (American) drank it all the time growing up. When we were dating, I was visiting him in Connecticut at one time, and he was convinced I’d love it if I had some. Bleh. It’s not like chocolate milk. It’s like chocolate water, except not really CHOCOLATE. Fake-chocolate water.

But I’m sure if I’d been drinking it all through my childhood, instead of having my first experience with it be past the age of 20, I’d think it ruled.
170: Dwindle said at 5:22 pm on August 27th, 2008:
@ Keith: KFC has never sold the Colonels original recipe in any resturant – they decided it was too expensive to produce. They were only after the name.

RE: Necco wafers: in all fairness, I think even as children we all realized it tasted like sidewalk chalk. However, it tasted like alternating flavors of sidewalk chalk, and that’s what made it tasty. I mean, the stuff comes in wax paper. Even they realized sitting on a shelf for six years partially wrapped would never alter the taste.

TRIVIA: Necco wafers and valentines candies are made by the same company, and are the exact same product, in the same flavors.
171: BeeGee said at 5:35 pm on August 27th, 2008:
Regarding Count Chocula and other Pixifood breakfast cereals, did you ever notice a major ingredient is tri-sodium-phosphate — used for grease and paint removal before refinishing a floor or piece of wooden furniture. And if you look at the label on a box of TSP it has a bold-type note saying: Warning! Keep away from children. Go figure…
172: Abbie Kendall said at 7:04 pm on August 27th, 2008:
Kraft Dinner — could not get enough of it as a kid. It’s not the same now (I believe it is devoid of actual cheese). .

“We’re having Beef-a-Roni!” or, “It’s a Manwich Night!” Mmm, Mmm!

Still lovin’ Spam, and anything by Chef Boy-ar-dee was delish!

Delish fish sticks from the Gorton’s Fisherman plus Tater Tots for dinner on Friday (special just for Catholic kids). Bad Friday would be tuna pot pies – ew!

Jello? Sure, when mom made it (blackberry and peach flavors were best) and we poured milk on it before we dove in. Weird, huh? Don’t touch the stuff now.

Loved when mom made Royal brand chocolate pudding — cooked and full of chocolate flavor. Skin or no skin? I always wanted the skin. If not Royal, then tapioca, bread, or rice pudding all were popular.

Candy cigarettes–yum–plus Bonamo Turkish Taffey, chocolate coins, Abba Zabba’s, wax lips and mustaches, licorice pipes, Sugar Daddy suckers (the really big ones!),Charms lollipops, Ju-Ju-Bees, jaw breakers, Atomic Fireball gum, Lifesavers in dozens of flavors, A&W rootbeer barrels, bubblegum cigars — all good things. Candycorn made the leap into adulthood — still nothing quite like it.

Kool Aid, Funny Face and Tang sucked, but we loved Fizzies!
Pop was a treat, not a right, so we were always tickled to get some Nehi Grape or 7up (real lemon and lime and intense carbonation). As we got older, “It has to be Shasta!”, or, for nuclear burping through one’s nose, Safeway’s Cragmont soda was the only choice.

The most tantalizing and disappointing food I recall was Jiffy Pop. No matter who made it or how careful they work, the damn stuff always burned.

Loved the black licorice of Blackjack Gum; the pepsin flavor of Beeman’s Gum, and the mixed spices in Teaberry Gum, all available at the local Rexall Drug.

We’d make toast and butter it, then pour on some Karo’s corn syrup, just to amp it up a bit.

Some kids in the neighborhood, they lived in Nesquik homes. We were strictly a Hershey’s syrup home.
173: imixitup said at 7:30 pm on August 27th, 2008:
I strongly object to people who strongly object!
The author states clearly that this list is not meant to be inclusive.

Strongly object as a child : wah wah wah
Strongly object as an adult: be reasonable
174: JohnDunbar said at 8:12 pm on August 27th, 2008:
Dude! You’re lamenting the change from Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC? Ever hear of Gino Marchetti? Gino’s featured Kentucky Fried Chicken before they change the name.

Change happens, get used to it.
175: Dodgeblogium » Pixifood said at 8:15 pm on August 27th, 2008:
[...] Joe Posnanski: [...]
176: dizzy said at 8:45 pm on August 27th, 2008:
hey i’m from chicago…and literally found out about you guys from perezhilton…

…necco wafers. loved them as a kid…especially once i found out that the chicago toll road used to except them as coins!

but the thing i CANT STAND is hamburger helper. that stuff is nasty. tastes like throw up.
177: bfwebster said at 9:19 pm on August 27th, 2008:
Through most of grades 3 through 6, I took two (count ‘em) two Velveeta+mayonnaise-on-white-bread sandwiches to school just about every day. I’d eat one at recess and the second at lunch. Loved them, especially when they got a bit warm and the Velveeta got rather soft.

It wasn’t until college that a girlfriend’s parents introduced me to real cheeses. It was a revelation, and a very pleasant one.

Now I walk through Costco and see unrefrigerated boxes of Velveeta stacked up in the aisles, and I shudder. ..bruce..
178: toddlr said at 11:26 pm on August 27th, 2008:
nicely done. i’d add another vote for pixie stix.
179: Jan said at 12:24 am on August 28th, 2008:
Remember the candy necklaces made out of the same stuff they used to make the valentine candies with sayings on them?

We used to spend our nickel weekly allowances on the wax coke bottles or wax lips with teeth or the candy necklaces.

I loved the PayDay candy bars combination of sweet and salty with peanuts as a kid, but can’t imagine I could eat one today. The frozen Zero candy bars with the white outer layer we used to get at the swimming pool would break an adult’s teeth, but kids’ teeth were going to come out anyway, so what the heck!

Circus peanuts with that unnatural orange color were a real favorite, too.
180: mclaren said at 2:16 am on August 28th, 2008:
Fig newtons taste great. Loved ‘em as a kid, still love ‘em today. But everything else is dead on target. Here are some more:

Cap’n Crunch cereal — when you’re a kid, it tastes like candy-flavored heaven. To an adult it tastes like what it is — sugar + salt.

Hot Pockets — to a kid, tastes like a delicious filling meal. To an adult, tastes like a salt and fat festival.

Hawaiian Punch – to a kid, tastes like the nectar of the gods. To an adult, tastes like toxic waste from a nuclear reactor.

Tropical Punch soda — to a kid, tastes like berry-flavore champagne; to an adult, tastes like watered-down battery acid.

Hostess chocolate cupcakes — to a kid, they taste like choclatey deliciousness…to an adult, they taste like charcoal briquettes with a fake-marshallow filling.

Frozen salisbury steaks — to a kid, tastes like a wonderful filling dinner. To an adult, tastes like old shoe leather soaked in brown glue.
181: Kona Andrews said at 3:21 am on August 28th, 2008:
We had candy cigarettes in Australia too. In the 70s, they were white sticks with a red tip, and came in a colourful little cardboard box branded “Fags”. A few years ago I was amused to see that the almost the same product was still on sale – but the red tips were gone and the product name was now “Fads”!
182: Roger Stewart said at 12:09 pm on August 28th, 2008:
Moon Pies – Southern treat that tastes like yummy marshmallow-filled cookies to kids; cardboard covered gunk to adults.
183: Nicole Jordan said at 1:49 pm on August 28th, 2008:
Did I miss it or has nobody mentioned “MIRACLE WHIP”??!!?

As a child: spicy sophisticated creamy goodness
As an adult: frightening petroleum by-product
184: A Non Moose said at 2:34 pm on August 28th, 2008:
Pop Rocks, Pixie Sticks and bubble tape should all be added.
185: Portlander said at 5:47 pm on August 28th, 2008:
Have you guys ever heard of Zots?

Kid: Fruity drops with a fizzy middle
Adult: Chemicals and sugar with nuclear waste in the middle.

What made them fizz anyway?
186: John said at 12:11 am on August 29th, 2008:
There are definitely foods that seemed delicious in youth and seem repulsive now, but there are items on this list I still like. For example, I still enjoy me some pop-tarts, but only Cinnamon/Brown sugar flavor, and only un-toasted.

KFC isn’t vomitously terrible, but I prefer Popeyes, and all of them are put to shame by the deli fried-chicken at Publix grocery stores.

I’ve always preferred Apple Newtons to the Fig ones (and still like them, rarely), but that’s just my preference.

The one thing I absolutely disagree with is what you wrote in the bit about Tang:

It amazes me now, looking back, that the real hook for Tang was that astronauts drank it. Wow, we really thought astronauts were superheroes back then. I donâ€™t get the sense it is like that anymore. In some ways, I think NASA might be a PixiProgram, one that as a kid seems like the coolest thing ever and as an adult seems like a questionable use of taxpayer funds.

Screw that. We train super-scientists and engineers to go to space to build and repair stuff so we can have 24-hour world-wide news, GPS in our car and/or phone, detailed maps of the world, with up to the minute weather information and advance warning of incoming storms, tactical supremacy of the whole globe’s battlefields, further understanding of our local cosmic environment, advance warning of comets and asteroids that might impact earth, and a slim chance of eventually seeding earth-life somewhere other than here so that we don’t die when this planet does. And at a bargain price compared to operating the Pentagon, Social Security or Medicare, too! Just because NASA’s been going for 50 years now and they make it LOOK routine doesn’t mean it is. Those guys are superheroes, and don’t you ever forget it.
187: Suburban Guerrilla » Blog Archive » Pixiefoods said at 8:47 am on August 29th, 2008:
[...] Mine is Captain Crunch. What’s yours? [...]
188: kimberly said at 11:01 am on August 29th, 2008:
Flav-a-ice popsicles:

As a kid: Tahitian Fruit Wonder
As an adult: Anti-freeze
189: Glenn Werner said at 3:21 pm on August 29th, 2008:
Well, it may be that I’m just a kid at heart (I’m 54). Or, it may be that my ability to taste anything was burned out long ago from too much red pepper on my pizza, but… I STILL love Chocolate Necco Wafers. You’re right, they taste like chalk, only they taste like Chocolate Chalk and that says something in their defense, I think. I also believe that “Smarties” are the best little candies ever invented. S’there!
190: Peter F said at 4:59 pm on August 29th, 2008:
Awesome post.

Fun fact: the New England Confectionery Company (NECCO wafers, get it?) in Cambridge used to make the entire area around MIT smell like NECCO wafers.

“Deathsinger”, if you aren’t from New England, that may be why you’re not familiar with NECCO or Fluff, a marshmallow product of Lynn, MA (“Lynn, Lynn, city of sin, you don’t come out the way you go in”)…
191: Elizabeth said at 5:13 pm on August 29th, 2008:
I didn’t see it mentioned (through all the tears of laughter), but does anyone remember Zots?! As a Kid: wonderful hard candy outside with a burst of fizzy surprise inside! As an adult: A hard piece of candy with alka seltzer inside! Who knew?!

Just an aside on the KFC debate: Who cares? It’s still greasy fried ‘food’ that eventually will end you in a doctor’s care for coronary disease.
192: Jake said at 6:25 pm on August 29th, 2008:
Little Debbie Snack Cakes
As a child it tastes like: chocolatey-delicious cake and creamy-dreamy filling
As an adult it tastes like: a candle without a wick

Cap’n Crunch
As a child it tastes like: exactly what a kids’ sugary cereal should taste like
As an adult it tastes like: a running chainsaw
193: Judith said at 1:37 pm on August 30th, 2008:
What a great post! Others I would love to hear about: Squeeze-Its and anything Hostess.
194: kristen said at 2:52 pm on August 30th, 2008:
When I was about 16 or so, my best friend got hungry around 4am &decided on Spaghetti-Oâ€™s. Just the smell of them early in the morning made my stomach do somersaults. I have yet to eat them since.

Candy cigarettes do seem like a horrible idea, but I “smoked” /ate them when I was younger &I have yet to smoke a real cigarette. Never ever. &I’m 22.

Also, Pink Snowballs = pure heaven. I’d eat one right now if it were available. [[drools]]
195: Piwacket said at 5:18 pm on August 30th, 2008:
Kids don’t like Fig Newtons.
Maybe kids 60 years ago, which would explain why old people like them…
196: CHARLIE said at 5:35 pm on August 31st, 2008:
Hysterical ! So, when was the last time you had any chewy toffee-like candy, like Charleston Chew or Salt Water Taffy? As a kid, everlasting yummy chewliciousness. As an adult, enamel-lifting, gum-tearing, saliva-inducing, artery clogs.

And to the KFC-defenders: seriously, when did you last eat any fast food fried chicken? The last time I ate it, it tasted about as greasy and salty and chicken-esque as I had fondly remembered it, to be sure, but I paid a dear price, spending about two hours (some of it painful) on the can. I’d sooner waterboard my children than let them ingest that garbage. A sweaty car seat has more nutritional value!
197: Mikey LIKES it!… « (Roughly) Daily said at 2:44 am on September 2nd, 2008:
[...] Peruse the whole list here. [...]
198: Sean said at 9:33 am on September 2nd, 2008:
Here is the solution to making all of these things taste just as good as when Hall and Oats still owned the top 40.

Smoke a fatty and enjoy!!!
199: horker1 said at 10:35 am on September 2nd, 2008:
Back in the day FunDip wasn’t a Willy Wonka product, that’s a fairly new phenomenon. Nestle (Willy Wonka) purchased the brand in 1989. It was manufactured by Sunline inc. and marketed by Sunmark Brands.

Why no mention of that horrible Fruit Stripe gum? It was (and maybe it still is) delicious for about 10 seconds/10 chews and then turns to horrible rubber flavor.
200: Jonathan said at 3:14 pm on September 2nd, 2008:
I would nominate one other item for your list: Kix brand breakfast cereal: “Kids like Kix for what Kix has got; Moms like Kix for what Kix has not.” What a catchy jingle? As a teen, I loved the taste and loved to eat Kix every day. These days, I know it’s just puffed air masquerading as corn cereal. I could never eat enough bowls on a given morning as an adult to avoid being ravenously hungry by 9 am.
201: Nancy said at 4:50 pm on September 3rd, 2008:
Re Pixifoods —

What a great blog; has generated many memories. First, a joke:

Beverage for old folks who would like to maintain healthful regularity: Prune-Tang!

Heard in an AA meeting:

Q: “What’s the most fucked-up thing you ever drank when you were desperate for a drink?”

A: Vodka and Tang, with a chunk of frozen peas (there were no ice cubes available). John Stodalka knows whereof I speak.

Who remembers David Letterman’s man-on-the-street giving out samples of a drink called “Spang”? It was Spam and Tang, mixed in a blender. He actually got people to try it!

My 22-year-old daughter loves Kool-Ade (fruit punch flavor): if she’s mixing a pitcherful when I come in the house, it smells just like FINGERNAIL POLISH !!

I tried to give my kids strawberry-banana Jell-O and they said it tasted like amoxicillin. But we love Circus Peanuts occasionally.

What about those awful Chicken Bones (now called Chick-O-Stick)? Never tasted them; the very idea horrified me as a child, and still does.

Boston Baked Beans are not candy; they’re horribly stale peanuts in a shell of carnuba wax and Red Dye #2.

I loved that “Laugh In” revived Walnettos. (Tyrone F. Horneigh on his trike)

I love Good N’Plenty.

My kids talked me into trying a Nuclear Warhead once: OW! I thought my salivary glands were going to implode … like a black hole.
202: Sam said at 9:57 am on September 5th, 2008:
Great list. I still love Fig Newtons but that may be because I never had them growing up. I don’t know if anyone here ever ate glue, but I think it would be interesting to see what those who ate it found so appealing and what they think now.
203: Realizing that our tastes, they are a changinâ€™ « Notchweiner is said at 11:12 am on September 5th, 2008:
[...] Remember when you were a kid? One of the greatest things in the world was to climb up on the kitchen counter and sneak one of those delicious little treats your parents hid on the top shelf of the cupboard. Twinkies were your caviar and Spaghetti-Os your fillet mignon. Well, Joe Posnanski invites you to take a step back in time and reevaluate those childhood tastes. [...]
204: toby crow said at 9:00 am on September 14th, 2008:
As a kid I would love to eat Quisp cereal. I’m 37 now and two years ago sent off to the cereal company to have them special make a box for me. You know to teleport back in time to eat a big bowl and watch Saturday morning cartoons (are their still cartoons on Saturday morning?).
Well…the taste was not like I remembered. Kinda made me sad.
At some point in life you can never go home again.
205: Liz said at 9:56 am on September 15th, 2008:
Necco wafers are the single most disgusting candy available. I’m more likely to eat one of those stupid tequilla lollipops with the worm trapped inside before I would eat a Necco wafer.

I also agree with the Miracle Whip comment. Gross.

Also, as a Kentuckian I love that people think just because the first franchise was started in Utah that Kentucky Fried Chicken was invented in Utah. I guess we can’t all be scholars, now can we?
206: Dee said at 10:15 am on September 23rd, 2008:
I got a real kick out of reading these comments and it brought back lots of memories and although I am now 55 I still love most of these items so I guess I am the strange one. But I haven’t read anything about the rock candies – nothing but pure sugar but I sure loved them plus the rock gum that came in those sacks. This is probably why my mouth is full of silver fillings – I think everytime I went to the dentist I always had at least one cavity and sometimes more.

The worst thing for kids today is those fruit snacks – just ask a Dentist what he thinks of children eating them.
207: Websites tagged "wintergreen" on Postsaver said at 12:47 pm on September 30th, 2008:
[...] – Pixifoods Part I saved by egonerwin2008-09-21 – An International Mutual Fund Worth Buying – Part 1. The … saved by [...]

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