Parents, don't let this happen to your child!

[Todash]

This weekend, my 11-year-old niece Cayla stayed with me. We ate junk food and did crafting and girly things. A good time was had by all. BUT. In the midst of everything, we went through a drive-thru to pick up dinner, and she got a kid's meal with a cruddy toy. This led to the following conversation:


Cayla: I don't really want this toy.
Me: Yeah, it's not great. You know, when I was a kid, Cracker Jack came with great toys! Now the toys it comes with SUCK. (I know I shouldn't be using those kinds of words around little kids, but sometimes I forget.)
Cayla: What's Cracker Jack?
Me: ...

I mean ... really? Seriously? DON'T HER PARENTS EVEN CARE??? I feel like she's been robbed of her childhood. Parents, don't let this happen to your children. Please. PLEASE.

[Moderator]

:laugh:

[atomicinchworm]

Really the ONLY thing Cracker Jacks had going for them was the toy, which now is like a press on tattoo. Which is dumb. It's not like Cracker Jacks are tasty or anything. :P

[Lily Sawyer]

She'll also never know the joy of watching 90 minutes of Bugs Bunny and the gang on Saturday mornings on CBS.
I'd go on strike if I were nine and faced with the Saturday morning line-ups on network TV these days. They're awful.

Todash, see to it that she learns how to make rice the old-fashioned way, not in a microwave;
recognizes a landline phone when confronted with it;
has respect for hardcover books and actually reads one before reverting back to her Kindle;
knows how to play tag, Red Light/Green Light, and gin rummy before she's out of her tween years;
and can correctly identify the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Dire Straits by their song intros

You'll be the coolest aunt ever.

[Terry B]

This wasn't a young child I had a conversation with but early last year I got my hair cut by a cute little 24 year old gal who talked and talked about how her family was such great and wonderful fans of the Los Angeles Angels. She went on to talk about the games they go to, etc. I told her I hadn't been to a game in LA since I saw Nolan Ryan pitch. Wait for it. Wait for it. Sure enough the first question out of her mouth was "who's Nolan Ryan"? I guess there's something her Angel fan Dad forgot to tell her.

[kingricefan]

Maybe by the time she's in her teens Oprah will have realized that she (oprah) made a big mistake by leaving her show and will be back on the air with a new one and your niece will be able to be a guest on the show and talk about how rotten her childhood was because her evil parents never gave her any Cracker Jack to eat and that's why she did the horrible things that she did? :laugh: Seriously, that's a shame that she doesn't know what a treat Cracker Jack's is. Did you rectify the situation and get her some?? Inquiring minds NEED to know........

[GNTLGNT]

...really, seriously?...yer apologizing for using the word "sucks" around an 11 year old?...let her "school" ya, then tell her about the greatest secret of childhood, that's being done away with...Bazooka Joe comics...

http://collider.com/wp-content/image-base/Movies/B/Bazooka_Joe/bazooka_joe_comic_01.jpg

[Spideyman]

Sure does make one think- times they be a changin' for sure. So agree with Lily, and say true GNTLGNT. There is a lifetime of experiences today's children may never get to see.:down:
Have a young couple down the street, cute little young tot. They bought him a hand made wooden train for Christmas. The words from the child-- "what does it do?" Imagination lost to a generation.

[fljoe0]

Do kids still get to experience the piece of rock hard gum in a pack of baseball cards? That stuff has probably been outlawed. I think that gum was as hard as granite.

[Todash]

Maybe by the time she's in her teens Oprah will have realized that she (oprah) made a big mistake by leaving her show and will be back on the air with a new one and your niece will be able to be a guest on the show and talk about how rotten her childhood was because her evil parents never gave her any Cracker Jack to eat and that's why she did the horrible things that she did? :laugh: Seriously, that's a shame that she doesn't know what a treat Cracker Jack's is. Did you rectify the situation and get her some?? Inquiring minds NEED to know........
Not yet. I think I'm gonna plan a little "awesome things from my childhood that you are completely missing" party.

[Todash]

...really, seriously?...yer apologizing for using the word "sucks" around an 11 year old?...

This one will bust you on every single slip of the tongue. "YOU SAID THE D WORD!!"

[Vose]

Have a young couple down the street, cute little young tot. They bought him a hand made wooden train for Christmas. The words from the child-- "what does it do?" Imagination lost to a generation.

My son is 17 months and he actually prefers his plastic trucks, tractors and animals to the toys he has that light up and make noise. I suppose that might change, but I don't think it will since my wife and I do so much pretend play with him. While I do feel nostalgic about the experiences I had that he will miss out on, I am generally of the mindset that the world is doing ok and that stuff from "back in the day" wasn't necessarily better. The really good stuff endures!

[~Ally~]

I haven't a clue what y'all are talking about...crackerjacks? :umm:
Sounds like I'm missing out on something gooooood, though. :down:

[Moderator]

Cracker Jacks (http://www.fritolay.com/our-snacks/cracker-jack-original.html) is a snack made with caramel covered popcorn and peanuts and has been around for over 100 years here.

[~Ally~]

Cracker Jacks (http://www.fritolay.com/our-snacks/cracker-jack-original.html) is a snack made with caramel covered popcorn and peanuts and has been around for over 100 years here.

Ooh, they sound tasty! How come I've never noticed these on my previous travels to the USA?
Looks like I need to book another holiday now just to rectify this situation. :y:

[fushingfeef]

Mmmm, my kids get Cracker Jack, have been for years. I'm not sure they even like it but I do, and they always like the prize, even though the prizes now are pretty bad even compared to the crappy prizes I got years ago as a kid (rings, tattoos, plastic airplanes, etc).

[Moderator]

Depends on whether you like popcorn and a sweet/salty food combination I guess. Not something I've eaten since my kids were little, but I used to enjoy it every so often. You can probably find them in most grocery and convenience stores.

[~Ally~]

Depends on whether you like popcorn and a sweet/salty food combination I guess.

I just like food, and am willing to try anything at least once.

[Terry B]

One thing I forgot to mention. In our neighborhood we have kids who play outside. Yes - I said outside. No phones, no IPads, no electronics of any kind. Just bikes and balls and on old tire. AND they're polite. Love these kids.

[fushingfeef]

One thing I forgot to mention. In our neighborhood we have kids who play outside. Yes - I said outside. No phones, no IPads, no electronics of any kind. Just bikes and balls and on old tire. AND they're polite. Love these kids.

Free-range kids! Our neighborhood has a fair number of them too. We even occasionally have an ice cream truck stop by.

[kingricefan]

One thing I forgot to mention. In our neighborhood we have kids who play outside. Yes - I said outside. No phones, no IPads, no electronics of any kind. Just bikes and balls and on old tire. AND they're polite. Love these kids.

Did you follow someone thru the rabbit hole from 11/22/63????? :eek2:

[Neesy]

I haven't a clue what y'all are talking about...crackerjacks? :umm:
Sounds like I'm missing out on something gooooood, though. :down:
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQcY37AqonMhFqdS-YrctwZUL70wcIovt7BCzw0JDNxYvakaIjY4w
Music intro... "Candy coated popcorn, peanuts and a prize! That's what you get in Cracker Jack!"
My husband is from Scotland and has lived in Canada for about six years now so we often run into little discrepencies like that. He calls a double lane highway a "duel carriageway". Please - tell me he is just plain strange and old fashioned. (You don't call it a duel carriageway, do you?) It is like he was transported here from the past! Cue Twilight Zone music and Rod Serling...:laugh:

[kingricefan]

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQcY37AqonMhFqdS-YrctwZUL70wcIovt7BCzw0JDNxYvakaIjY4w
Music intro... "Candy coated popcorn, peanuts and a prize! That's what you get in Cracker Jack!"
My husband is from Scotland and has lived in Canada for about six years now so we often run into little discrepencies like that. He calls a double lane highway a "duel carriageway". Please - tell me he is just plain strange and old fashioned. (You don't call it a duel carriageway, do you?) It is like he was transported here from the past! Cue Twilight Zone music and Rod Serling...:laugh:

Or perhaps he's from Roland's time...........

[PatInTheHat]

Do kids still get to experience the piece of rock hard gum in a pack of baseball cards? That stuff has probably been outlawed. I think that gum was as hard as granite.
Ya throw it in the microwave:wink2:.
Of course you have to be a real affectionado of pink goo, 'cause your gonna have to throw away that microwave:rolleyes:.
Well hey, y'all think the odoriferousness of burnt microwave popcorn (or oh my word, kettle corn:oops:), will drive down your property value, give toastin' that stuff up a wee whirl:biggrin2:.
Hmmm, I'm thinkin' that's when they discovered they could start usin' it for the heat shield tiles on the Space Shuttles, very interesting stuff is what I'm sayin'...butt remember, safety first is often, relatively speaking, our motto >>>--------> :geek:

[GNTLGNT]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwq_x9QsLzg

[Todash]

My son is 17 months and he actually prefers his plastic trucks, tractors and animals to the toys he has that light up and make noise. I suppose that might change, but I don't think it will since my wife and I do so much pretend play with him. While I do feel nostalgic about the experiences I had that he will miss out on, I am generally of the mindset that the world is doing ok and that stuff from "back in the day" wasn't necessarily better. The really good stuff endures!

This may be true. I notice that you can still get Super Bubble in apple flavor. (Sorry, GNTLGNT, I always hated Bazooka gum. Freaking stuff was hard as a rock, and the comics were worse than the jokes in Laffy Taffy.)

[staropeace]

Did you get ice-cream called Screwballs in the States? They are made of vanilla ice-cream with a gumball down at the end of the cone. It is not actually a cone but a plastic container with it's shape. I do not know if kids in Canada can still buy screwballs..if not then what a shame. OH OH my all time favorite treat was a confection of ice-cream and orange sorbet on a stick called Buried Treasure...this was only in Newfoundland. The stick had a looneytunes cartoon character but you had to eat the ice-cream to see it. We were so very lucky then. Kids do not have the cool munchie stuff we had, nowadays. So solly.

[GNTLGNT]

This may be true. I notice that you can still get Super Bubble in apple flavor. (Sorry, GNTLGNT, I always hated Bazooka gum. Freaking stuff was hard as a rock, and the comics were worse than the jokes in Laffy Taffy.)

...I agree, it's still a classic though...was always a Rain-Blo man me-self...

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lo14moA0681qdgmhm.jpg

[Autumn Gust]

I spent a lot of time introducing foods and activities from the past to my kids while they were growing up. I just couldn't imagine them not experiencing some of the cool stuff I did as a kid. At times, though, it was hard to find some things. I remember one of my biggest goals was to have my son play on one of those things they used to have in all playgrounds, everywhere. Can't think of the name of it! A carousel, maybe? You and a couple of kids would climb on, hold on tight, give a push with your foot, and you could twirl forever. I used to spin so fast I would stagger off and be dizzy when it came to a stop! (Hmmm... They probably banned them from playgrounds because of liability issues.) Anyway, after years of looking, we found one in Lithia Park in Ashland, Oregon.
Another thing I did (and still do) is recreate foods from history. My daughters and I made Laura Ingalls Wilder's wedding cake, for example, when we read the books together years ago.
Once I heard Michael Buble say he sings the standards because he can't just let them die. That's how I feel about a lot of old things. Even if they are hokey!

[doowopgirl]

Imagine my poor son. Born and raised in Ireland. We now have Pop Tarts, Oreos, Doritos, Ben and Jerry's and all kinds of fas food, the poor deprived child has never had candy corn.

[Todash]

I spent a lot of time introducing foods and activities from the past to my kids while they were growing up. I just couldn't imagine them not experiencing some of the cool stuff I did as a kid. At times, though, it was hard to find some things. I remember one of my biggest goals was to have my son play on one of those things they used to have in all playgrounds, everywhere. Can't think of the name of it! A carousel, maybe?I guess, if you want to be all fancy about it. We just called them merry-go-rounds. :biggrin2:


Another thing I did (and still do) is recreate foods from history. My daughters and I made Laura Ingalls Wilder's wedding cake, for example, when we read the books together years ago.Oh, that is a great idea!

[Todash]

Imagine my poor son. Born and raised in Ireland. We now have Pop Tarts, Oreos, Doritos, Ben and Jerry's and all kinds of fas food, the poor deprived child has never had candy corn.
While I personally despise candy corn, it is definitely a marker of childhood. Perhaps a moment of silence is in order.

[Dana Jean]

Todash, I had something similar happen to me a couple years ago. I went to Best Buy to purchase a Bob Seger CD. I looked everywhere and couldn't find him. A young man who worked there approached me...

Him: May I help you?
Me: I can't seem to find the Bob Seger CDs.
Him: Who's that?

I immediately came home and made sure my kids knew who the hell Bob Seger was.

[atomicinchworm]

At least when I was a kid, the states still had screwballs. They were my favorite off of the ice cream truck. :D

[not_nadine]

I have ordered from this place before... pretty awesome

http://www.hometownfavorites.com/about-us/

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519V028y%2BQL.jpg

[CCAL]

when I read this about the cracker jack toys the first thing I thought of was that movie Below (and the guy who constantly opened his cracker jack prizes). sorry but I busted up laughing

[GNTLGNT]

Imagine my poor son. Born and raised in Ireland. We now have Pop Tarts, Oreos, Doritos, Ben and Jerry's and all kinds of fas food, the poor deprived child has never had candy corn.

....how about "Children of the Candy Corn"?...:eek2:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6RwL-V8_HpA/TL0ksI8a1KI/AAAAAAAACRo/1DpVSIkiKOM/s1600/ChildrenOfTheCandyCorn.png

[Neesy]

Imagine my poor son. Born and raised in Ireland. We now have Pop Tarts, Oreos, Doritos, Ben and Jerry's and all kinds of fas food, the poor deprived child has never had candy corn.

Doowogirl - do you have Kraft Peanut Butter over there? When I spent three months in Scotland I craved that stuff. Could not find it anywhere! I was on an island called the Isle of Arran but even on the mainland it seemed that they had none. You could get something similar but it did not taste the same.

[Neesy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwq_x9QsLzg

Cool video GntlGnt :y: One of these days I am going to figure out how to post a Youtube video here. Yesterday I heard a Creedence Clearwater Revival song in the truck and I just had to crank up the volume. Fortunate Son
"Some folks are born, born to raise the flag"
"Ooh they're red, white and blue, Lord" - I just love that song! Anyway, kind of off topic but I just wanted to share :laugh:

[EAST COASTER]

...really, seriously?...yer apologizing for using the word "sucks" around an 11 year old?...let her "school" ya, then tell her about the greatest secret of childhood, that's being done away with...Bazooka Joe comics...

http://collider.com/wp-content/image-base/Movies/B/Bazooka_Joe/bazooka_joe_comic_01.jpg
Wow Giant, I'd forgotten all about Bazooka Joe..........thanks for that!

[fredthe3rd]

So... what IS Cracker Jack? Is it like Kinder Surprise?

[atomicinchworm]

Cracker Jacks are just caramel popcorn with peanuts. It used to have awesome surprises at the bottom of the box, now they just have tattoos and stickers. They still were not as awesome as kinder surprises though, and it sucks we can't get Kinder chocolates here, since apparently American children apparently can't differentiate chocolate from plastic.
>.>

I guess the idea is the same as Kinder, but less awesome, because you get chocolate with those instead of mostly stale caramel corn. :P

[~Ally~]

and it sucks we can't get Kinder chocolates here, since apparently American children apparently can't differentiate chocolate from plastic.

Do you get the little kinder chocolate bars?

http://www.certiferme.com/blog/imgs/articles/blog-31192-pour-une-amie-vote--210910090453-4640278903.jpg

I prefer these over the eggs anyway, the toys aren't as good in the surprises now.

[Todash]

Cracker Jacks are just caramel popcorn with peanuts. It used to have awesome surprises at the bottom of the box, now they just have tattoos and stickers. They still were not as awesome as kinder surprises though, and it sucks we can't get Kinder chocolates here, since apparently American children apparently can't differentiate chocolate from plastic.
>.>

I guess the idea is the same as Kinder, but less awesome, because you get chocolate with those instead of mostly stale caramel corn. :P
It's not exactly caramel corn, though ... it tastes of molasses. And if it's stale you got a bad box. Unless it's old or has been exposed to too much heat or something, each kernel of corn should be crisp, as should the candy coating around it. Proper Cracker Jack is actually pretty good--although strongly flavored for a palate used to very sweet things.

If, by the way, you are not from the US and yet think that Cracker Jack (pretty much universally referred to as "Cracker Jacks," by the way, even by me) sounds oddly familiar, this might be why:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drOdOCuWNRY&feature=player_detailpage#t=104s (http://www.stephenking.com/forums/redirector.php?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2 Fwatch%3Fv%3DdrOdOCuWNRY%26feature%3Dplayer_detail page%23t%3D104s)