caramel coated popcorn & peanuts
It's a classic snack. It really is. Been at ballparks for most of the century; being immortalized in the third verse of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." As it's written on the back of the bag (yeah bag, the cool box package has sadly been scrapped), it "HAS DELIVERED GREAT TASTE AND PRIZES TO MILLIONS OF KIDS AROUND THE WORLD." And dammit, it's truly tasty. What upsets me, though, is the prize. Cracker Jack prizes used to be exciting! When I was a wee one I actually got a decoder ring once!! I thought it was the greatest snack ever.
I don't want pictures of David Duchovny as my Cracker Jack prize.
Double D is a good actor, I enjoy his film Evolution immensely. But the man has absolutely no business invading my Cracker Jacks.
If I ever had the opportunity to meet Sailor Jack I would, without hesitation, ask him "why has the quality of the Cracker Jack prize declined so heavily??"
I've done some research...
Cracker Jacks of today are not the same product that they were when they first started advertising their "A prize in ever box" slogan back in 1912. Created in 1893 by F.W. Rueckheim and Brother, Cracker Jack was sold to the Borden, Inc based in C-Bus Ohio in 1964!! The company was bought out by Frito-Lay in 1997. Frito-Lay, of course, cuts its costs as greatly as it possibly can. Ie, just finished my bag... 3 peanuts. That's it!! ...Granted I don't even eat the peanuts, so from my standpoint it was kinda nice to not have to pick 'em all out of my handfuls... but still, not even the point.
So yeah, between the changing of the economic times under the ownership of Borden and the cheapies at Frito-Lay, the American public has gone from receiving actual prizes in its Cracker Jacks to plastic-paper pictures of David Duchovny.
And it saddens me.
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