I am sorry to hear that Hostess will no longer be offering their Twinkies to the public, mind you, I don’t buy or eat Twinkies. I had one once in the 60’s. A grade school chum offered me the second Twinkie in her double pack after school one day. I remember the Twinkie being larger than my hand and I can still remember the taste and texture of that Twinkie today. I remember the soft spongy yellow cake oozing the cream filling with every bite. I don’t think I had ever tasted anything like it, as my mother didn’t let us eat sugary pre- processed food. Maybe a home made chocolate cake for a siblings birthday, or an under baked tart from my easy bake oven, but never a Hostess Twinkie, Fruit Pie, Ding Dong, or Ho-Ho. I guess I can thank my mom for my impeccably clear arteries to this day…
Twinkies came on board around 1933 and now they will become extinct and for some reason that saddens me. I’m sorry Hostess had to declare bankruptcy, couldn’t they just repay their creditors with an abundance of sweet snack cakes? Twinkie’s developed quite the resume besides clogging coronaries and sending children into sugar coma’s. The Twinkie found itself costarring in movies, like Grease, Die Hard, and Ghostbusters and also wound up in the courtroom at the 1979 murder Trial of Harvey Milk, where Dan white claimed he overdosed on Twinkie’s an was acting under a delusional influence of a sugar high. Hmm..maybe he needed a glass of Milk.
I think Twinkie’s were a part of our society whether we indulged in their cream fillings or not. I am guilty of offering a Twinkie to my children when they were young, around the same age when I had my first Twinkie. My son came home from school and wanted to try a Twinkie. I of course objected and then after a lengthy conversation with a six year old who ended all my statements with “Why?”; I decided to give in.
I went to the store and found the hostess aisle and searched for a twin packet of Twinkie’s. There were none. Apparently after thirty years Twinkie’s now came in a box of twelve. My son was with me and was grinning from ear to ear with that bit of news. I managed to spot a double pack twinkie stand toward the checkout and grabbed one. The first thing that hit me was the size. It was no longer bigger than my hand. In fact, it barely covered my palm. The second thing that hit me was the price.
My son and I returned to the car with the Twinkie’s in hand. I had as much anticipation as he did when opening the twin pack. I gave him his half and watched as he bit into the yellow cake and licked the cream filling out of the center. I’m assuming that was Twinkie protocol. I held my Twinkie for a few moments before taking the first bite. I examined the cake and it appeared to be a little more on the orange side than I remembered. I chose to break my Twinkie in half to witness the airy fluffiness of the spongecake and cream filling spilling out onto your fingers, but when I flexed the cake it just seem to sag and bend. I wrestled with it’s rubbery texture until the cake pulled apart like my unbaked cakes cooked by a 60 watt bulb from my Easy Bake Oven built in the 60’s.
After successfully separating the Twinkie, I had to put my glasses on to find the cream filling. I guess this was the first indicator that Hostess was having difficulties; Cutbacks of the cream filling, followed by more red dye and gluing agents. I took a deep breath before I took the first bite of what seems to be a deflated expectation. There was something different about this Twinkie from what I remembered. It lacked something and I couldn’t put my tongue on it. It was missing the the basic ingredient from the 60’s that gave Twinkie it’s popularity. It lacked TASTE.
I spat that wad of chemicals out into a napkin and turned to grab the remains of my sons Twinkie, but was met with him licking the sticky crumbs off his fingers, and a giant smile over his face. He thanked me profusely for his snack cake and wanted another one. I drove back home explaining to my son that “This was not the Twinkie I grew up with”. I expounded on the differences of our Twinkie generation gap, and how I would not be a part of a defamed Twinkie..an imposter you might say, a Twinkie lacking in character and taste and cream filling!
It grieves me to think that my son’s first Twinkie tasted like an over priced spongecake left on the shelf too long fermenting in it’s yellow dye. And to skimp on the filling was the icing on the cake…
When I heard that the Hostess Twinkie was no longer to be around I had an epiphany to go and buy one and stick it in my freezer. My son is in college now, and I don’t think he has had a Twinkie since our first encounter when he was in grade school. He was home over the holiday break and I mentioned to him that I was going to purchase a pack of Twinkie’s and I was going to stick them in the freezer, and come the day that I should no longer be on this Earth I would like him to carry this Twinkie into the future and pass it on to future generations that may own a freezer. I asked my son this one thing to do and he responded with a “No”.
I asked him “why?”; it was such a simple request to carry the Twinkie into the future. To keep the Twinkie alive in the deep freeze. He could be the owner of the last Twinkie standing.
He said ” he would just eat it”.
Not if they are selling for $5000 on Ebay…….
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