"childhood" news and stories

I spent an hour looking at all of the photos on Color Wars 2008 - YOUNGME - NOWME. I love it! Members were asked to find a picture of themselves when they were very little and then try to recreate that pose and picture at their current age. People did an amazing job of recreating scenes - matching clothing, poses, and expressions.

One photo that stuck out for me was of user sublimecowgirl licking a beater. Licking the beater is something I've loved to do since I was kid. While I don't stare in a mirror while I do it, I imagine that I have the same child-like smile on my face as I did 20 years ago.

What childhood food can we still catch you devouring now?

[via Haha.nu]

I am a fan of the discussion board www.Chowhound.com and have been a regular there for many years. Lately I have been checking in on a thread about candy. It is about "worst tasting candy ever!!!!" but has evolved into a discussion about favorite or disliked candy from your childhood. I have chimed in several times about my likes and dislikes, and been pleased or disturbed to hear others views. The opinions are all over the map, one persons desire is another's pet peeve.

Some of my favorites as a kid were C.Howard's violets, Circus Peanuts (stale of course), Smarties, Reese's peanut butter cups (I tasted one recently and they have definitely changed the recipe, for the worse), Broadway red licorice, Twizzlers, malted milk balls, Sixlets, the original Rowntree KitKats from England, tangerine and tropical fruit Lifesaver's, the original Swedish fish, Smith Brothers honey cough drops, Hot Tamales, and many more.

Some candy I didn't care for were Jordan Almonds, Good and Plenty (but I love them now), chocolate covered cherries in syrup (gag!), Necco wafers, root beer kegs, and 99% of all gum. (I never understood gum chewing, as a kid or now. If I have a piece it is for a minute or so to clean my palate, then discard rapidly.)

It seems that this is a topic with strong emotions attached. There are even collectible books called Remember When about candy you ate as a kid. So what were your childhood favorites? What made you gag? Have your tastes changed?

When I was growing up, nearly every night my family ate dinner together. No matter what else was for dinner, there was always a green vegetable. On the rare occasion that we'd have breakfast for dinner, my mom would serve apple slices and tell us to pretend that they were green (cauliflower and all squashes counted as green). Because of this early conditioning, I have a very hard time feeling like my dinner experience has been complete if there wasn't a green vegetable on my plate.

I realized that this wasn't the norm about a week ago when I was making dinner. Scott wandered into the kitchen and asked what we were having. I replied, "Turkey burgers and baby bok choy, gotta have a green veggie." He looked at me strangely and so I explained my mom's rule of dinner. He said that wasn't the rule in his house when he was growing up, but that he could see how it made some sense.

So now I'm curious. What were the food rules in your house growing up? What are the rules that you've made for your own kids? I've got a couple of others that were also the law in my house growing up, but before I share those, I want to hear yours.

In a funny post on a Seattle Post-Intelligencer reader blog, blogger Christina Hyun talks about growing up in an Asian household, and how her friends always told her that her house smelled better than their's did. On the flip side, Hyun always marveled at the huge quantity of bread/cereal/cookie products in her Caucasian friends' houses.

I can't relate as much to the cultural aspect, but as a kid, I was definitely envious of my friends' kitchens. My own mother tried to keep our diets pretty healthy, and flat-out refused to buy certain products (Fruit Roll-Ups, Ssips fruit punch, and Cookie Crisp cereal immediately come to mind). Other kids' parents often commented on my "healthy" appetite, as I downed cakes, cookies and fruit punch like it was going out of style. "Oh - my mom won't let us buy this stuff," I'd say, mouth half-full of Tastykake pie, red goo stuck to my chin. The mothers would nod warily as they added "Tastykake pies" to the grocery list.

As I got older, the rules loosened, and I heard rumors that my mom even allowed soda in the house - after I went off to college, of course. But by then the thrill was gone, and fear-mongering about obesity and diabetes had taken its place.

What about you? What products did other kids' kitchens have that made you green with envy? (Or were you that "other kid?")

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Perhaps you haven't noticed it because you are a victim of the phenomenon. You called up your girlfriends on your cotton candy pink cel phone adorned with sparkly cupcake-shaped charms, went out to get frozen yogurt topped with Cap'n Crunch cereal, and sat around talking about the "cuuuuuuutest" Hello Kitty makeup bag at Sephora and gossiping about "boys"...just like all the other junior high girls.

But wait. You're 35.

I was just reading an article about a new book called Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-Up, in which author Christopher Noxon says very plainly, "'People all over are refusing to act their age." Basically, grown-ups are going through a period of regression back to their childhoods. Though his book talks about the trend from a broad perspective, I couldn't help but think how very true this trend is in food. I mean, how else do you explain a craze for cupcakes, those tiny treats that we ate as children in our homeroom birthday parties? What about the recent throwback to "retro" foods that many of us associate with growing up in mom's kitchen like macaroni and cheese, and meatloaf?

Are we regressing as a society? I know I am. Are you one of these grownups who still lives with his/her parents, postpones marriage, watches cartoons, all the while eating Hello Kitty Pop-tarts, dipping your dinosaur (chicken) nuggets in ketchup and having a Twinkie for desert? If so, what other "rejuvenile" foods are you eating?

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