I don't have much of a relationship with potato chips these days. I consider them a guilty treat, to be eaten at parties but never at home. It's like having soda in the house -- if I buy it, they will eat it. And if they eat it, chips, I mean, they'll be hooked, and I'll never hear the end of it. The best I can offer my kids is the occasional package of tortilla chips, something to dredge up the salsa with.Ah, but I have a past. And my past is filled with processed foods of the sort that I'd never let my kids near, lest they come to understand the dark pleasures of Hostess products.
My parents had no such compunction with me. I grew up on Wonder Bread and TV dinners and Uncle Ben's Converted Rice. I ate a Hostess Fruit Pie almost every day. But among my most treasured taste memories: Munchos brand potato chips.Light, airy, salty. All in a clever orange foil bag. My dad bought me a bag whenever he went to the liquor store for more beer.
My entire association with Munchos is of a happy time in the mid-'70s when I lived with my Dad in his apartment, after my parents split up. We'd go grocery shopping, and along with a comic book or a sketch pad, he'd always pop for a big bag of Munchos for us to share. Or I'd go with him on his route as a pool man, tooling down the dusty streets of a then less crowded L.A. in his old truck, snacking on Munchos and Slim Jims as we went.
Introduced by Frito-Lay in 1973, the company still makes the brand but doesn't distribute it widely. I guess the field is so much more crowded, and the company's marketing dollars are better spent elsewhere. No matter, those of us who were kids in the '70s can be relied upon for the nostalgia buy.
In the interest of AOL's great Potato Chip taste-test, I recently ran to my neighborhood liquor store to buy a bag of Munchos and relive my childhood. From the first salty, over-processed bite, I was right back there in my Dad's old apartment, watching Soap and listening to Dire Straits, and wishing for the life of me for just one more sip of Dad's Mickey's Big Mouth.
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