Here's to Hostess memories...

It’s Friday, and time for another Cocktail Hour at the Henderson’s.  This morning, as my eyes opened and our favorite morning talk radio rang out with the morning news, Chris and I heard the sad news: Hostess Brands was calling it quits.  I turned to Chris and he muttered, “Twinkie goes down.  Damn Unions…”  While his mind was turning on the semi-political front, mine went back in time, to earlier days of my life and my memories of Hostess.  In the first grade, while at Liberty School in Visalia California, my mom would occasionally allow me to take ‘cold lunch’.  It was a treat, and not because of the baloney sandwich.  No, the treat lay in the snack cake that would always be waiting for me in my school bus shaped lunch box.  For me, it was Snowballs.  I adored them, and I had a particular way I would eat them to make them last as long as humanly possible.  I savored each part of the treat.  Sometimes, I would try eating all of the parts together, and think about how it was different to take this approach.  The beginnings of critical thinking as a six-year-old – good memories of a school life that weren't always easy for a kid whose parents moved around a lot.  Sometimes, the treats helped me make friends because everyone loves those cupcakes.  

Even the healthiest of those among us 

know I’m right!

Now I skipped ahead to my kids, and early memories of introducing them to Hostess. I chuckle as I recall that I literally could not keep Ho-Ho’s in the house unless they were well hidden.  I often had to remove them from the grocery bag before letting the kids unload the car.  Seth or Jeremy would grab them and hide them in their room.  I’m certain there were many significant fights over Ho-Ho’s.  Marty and Michaela removed themselves from the fray by deciding that they preferred Zingers and Fruit Pies respectively.  I could get many hours of work out of those kids with just one Hostess treat.  That was incredible. 

Today, as I went to purchase some treats to freeze for posterity’s sake, a young man behind the counter and I started discussing the demise of Hostess.  “Oh well,” he said, “surely someone else will come along and buy the patent to Twinkies.  It’s that the way it works?”  I sadly shook my head at his naiveté.  “No son, that’s not how it should work.  Building a reputation in business only to let someone else take it from you is not what we hope for in our country.” The other store clerk said, “Lot’s of memories surround those snack cakes.”  She and I smiled at each other knowingly.  I wondered at that moment if the folks who refused to deal with the company so that it would survive even considered what they were ending.  More than just cupcakes, but a company that made memories. The memories that my grandchildren will now just have to hear stories. 

So tonight, we toast to Hostess, and the all of the memories connected to this brand that each of us holds dear.  May the memories, like the Twinkie, prove to last much longer than the company was able to against the might of one determined union.  Our cocktail of choice is something called “Adult Chocolate Milk” and also “ChocoVine”.  Niko is joining us and drinking Chocolate Milk.  I’ll tell him stories about Daddy and the Ho-Ho’s…CHEERS FRIENDS! 

http://chocovine.com/

http://www.adultchocolatemilk.com/?seccion=home