What are some products that you fondly remember from your childhood?

Great Shakes.

Cake mixes. The introduction of pudding into them ruined the texture. I loved them in the 50s and 60s.

There are so many but can’t think of them from the top of my head.

I know one…there were these cookies shaped sort of like Nilla Wafers but tasted different I think. They came in a box and had pictures on them formed by dark blue lines. I’ve been craving them and can’t find them anywhere.
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Sunscreen that turns your skin purple.
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Parachutes…the ones you hid under and fluffed out, etc.
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Etnies Callicut
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Pokemon Cards

@dxs I’m going to see if I can find a picture of those cookies, although they don’t sound familiar to me. What is Etnies Callicut?

@Kardamom If you find them, please let me know. I’ll do a lot to get my hands on them. Etnies is a brand of shoes, and Callicut is a style of the brand I remember from when I was younger. I still have a pair that I found at a thrift store.

When I was little Hawaiian Punch only came in big, family sized cans. They were made with sugar, rather than high fructose corn syrup, and therefore, tasted quite different. Now it comes in plastic bottles and leaves a chemical after taste. Yuk!

Before I stopped eating meat, way back in the 70’s, Taco Bell had this menu item called an Enchirito. It was basically their version of an enchilada. It was kind of like their ground beef burrito and it was covered in enchilada sauce and melted, shredded cheese, with slices of black olives on top. They also had another item called a Bell Beefer, which was their beef taco filling put onto a bun with lettuce and cheese. I think they might have recently brought it back. It was kind of like a Mexican sloppy joe. Del Taco had something almost identical called a Bun Taco.

Doritos recently came out with a retro package version of their Taco Chips and to my delight, they tasted just as I remembered them. I only bought the one bag, because they’re so not good for you, but I just had to try them.

They still have Shakey’s Pizza Parlors out here, but they’re not the same thing as the Original, in fact, I believe the Shakey’s business was defunct for sometime, and then made a comeback, but the restaurants and the pizza are completely different. Shakey’s used to be my favorite pizza of all time, it was New York style and covered in ooey, gooey mozzarella cheese with a nice tangy sauce. Now it tastes like the stuff you get a Cici’s, it’s fine, but nothing to write home about. The original Shakey’s pizza was like pizza nirvana. The new restaurants might as well be sports bars, the original restaurants had more of a British pub feeling to them and they had a player piano that you could put quarters into and play old timey songs and on the weekends they had a live banjo player.

@dxs You’re American right? Do you recall, possibly, what the brand name was? Like Keebler or Mother’s or Nabisco? I just did a quick search and didn’t come up with anything. What were the pictures of? Did they come in a box or a bag?

@Kardamom American (New England) and no idea of the brand, but I believe they came in a box sort of like the animal crackers you find. I also recall buying them at CVS. I don’t know what the pictures were, but I think they were festive, for either Halloween or Easter. The drawings were dark blue, kind of faint, but not very intricate. Just a basic ink print (outlines) printed right on the cookie.
It was a vague memory from my childhood, but I definitely remember how much I loved those cookies. I’ll have to ask my parents if they remember them.

@dxs Even though it’s hot here, I am going to slip on my Hat and see if we can try to find a picture. I’ll pose this question on Facebook too, to see if anyone can remember it. I’m guessing this was around the late 80’s or early 90’s (by the look of the shoes) right?

Penny candy. Fizzies.

@Kardamom I’m not that old! I was born in 95, so about the turn of the millenium is when I had them. Puts on hat. For the shoes, I bet they’re still being made today, I just don’t see them as much. Here’s what the original ones looked like. Speaking of shoes, I was just reminded of Heelys. Never owned any, but remember being jealous when I saw someone cruising by me with them.

@dxs Ha Ha Ha! Sorry, it’s just that I’m so ooooooold at 50. I remember some of my younger co-workers wearing shoes like that in the 90’s. Anyway, we’ll try to track them down.

I saw a little girl, about 10 years old, have her heely’s slip out from under her and she landed on the back of her head on cement. I thought they should have banned those things.

@chyna Oh yeah! Fizzies. If you remember that, then you probably also remember Shake a Puddin’

@Kardamom My parents probably realized how dangerous those things were (as were so many other things of that time). Fizzies reminds me of Pop Rocks and Whatjaget Yogurt, which I can’t find anywhere online. The Yogurt was vanilla flavored and came with shiny sprinkles that popped like pop rocks.
Wow all these memories. Now I really want those cookies and that yogurt.

My grandpa’s homemade gravy, and his beef stew made with side ribs and potatoes.

Dunkaroos those were really good. I haven’t seen them in about 15 years or so.

Orange Julius and Spudnuts (donuts made with potato flour).

@Pachy I had an orange Julius, recently, at the county fair! It was so good. The original recipe called for raw, whipped egg whites, they no longer use that ingredient for fear of salmonella, but they tasted exactly as I remember them from the late 60’s. They also had strawberry, which was even better than the orange. Now I’m jonesing for one.

@talljasperman Would your Mom happen to have your Grandpa’s recipe for the gravy and the stew?

@shego I have a vague recollection of Dunkaroos, were they donut like things or were they cookies?

@Kardamom No she doesn’t, but I went shopping with my grandpa a couple of time and I think it is the bulk bin beef spice and potatoes and side ribs, with some kind of oil, I think it is canola, but the recipe for thanksgiving day turkey gravy is lost… it might be a little packet with the grease from the turkey.

@Kardamom, yes, I had one of those myself not long ago. Strictly ersatz. Tasted almost nothing like the delicious original from my high school days, which my high school girlfriend and I drank whenever we could.

Wigwags.

And only upon answering this question did I learn that they’re still made in the UK (as Curly Wurlys). I’ll have to try to find them to see if they taste the same.

@Pachy What a shame, the one I had tasted identical.

I miss the old Transformers… they were durable and stood up on their own.

Icies, cherry please.
Gumby & Pokey
Mrs. Beasley and Baby Secret dolls
Lite Brite
Etch-a-sketches
Go Go boots
Play Doh
My grandmothers brown sugar refrigerator cookies
Fresh plums and apricots right off the tree in summer
The sound of rainbird sprinklers

Oh the amount of Play Doh that I digested in my childhood…

Slinkies, strap-on roller skates. and the original metal Jarts.

$.15 cent mini chocolates

When little ceasars came with a free pie and was in those massive packages

Real firecrackers, vinyl and estes rocket engines priced reasonably. Fun dip, baseball cards that came with gum. Gijoe toys that required an insane amount of assembly but blew up spectactularly with said firecrackers. Roller skating, pinball, garbage pail kids…

Five cent Juicy Fruit chewing gum and seven cent Popsicles.

@ARE_you_kidding_me I loved little Caesars when they honored the pizza pizza deal. Now their pizza’s don’t taste the same either. Most are pre-made and left under a heated oven.

Yeah, I remember the pizzas came in one package that was like four feet long.

BobbleUp and Pogo Tick

@gondwanalon Is BobbleUp like Bubble Up? I’ve never heard of Pogo Tick.

I just realized that you might be pronouncing words as you did as a wee child, yes?

SerutaN: It’s Natures, spelled backwards!

Ipana toothpaste, which launched the career of Bucky Beaver.

Good Humor ice cream trucks.

Helms Bakery trucks.

You’ll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent!

Brylcreem, just little dab’ll do ya!

Portable fried chicken wagons (forgot the name) stopped when the grease spilled during car accidents.

I am shocked no one has yet come up with the granddaddy of them all: Original Coke. I was just talking with a friend the other day how the formula for Coke Cola has changed from when we were kids. After they changed it for that debacle they called ”New Coke”, it has never been the same, less fizzy, not as strong, and takes way longer to clean your battery terminals.

Second to that would be milk in glass bottles, cold and fresh off the dairy truck.

@Kardamom Dunkaroos are little cookies that you dip in frosting.

@shego I so wish I could put my face through the screen and eat those.

Wonder Ball, Melody Pops, I really miss those carefree times and cheap candies. I used to love catching fireflies and loved the way it used to lit my hand up. I never see fireflies anymore. When I was a kid, they were everywhere. Now I’m lucky if I see one a summer.