So long Twinkie

I am a Hostess kid.  

As such, today's announcement that Hostess Brands is closing for good hurts.  It's the end of a piece of my childhood.

For much of my growing up years, Hostess was a daily part of life.  My dad started working for the company when I was about 7.  As a kid, it was great to have an almost never-ending supply of Twinkies, Cup Cakes, Ding Dongs, etc., in the freezer.  Many of the products Dad got early on were considered "cripples".  These were perfectly good products that had too much or too little filling, too many or too few swirls on the cupcakes, cupcake swirls that weren't in the middle of the caketop.  They were fine to eat, but not good enough to sell.  We certainly didn't complain.  The first time I remember eating a regular cupcake was when we took a family trip to tour the bakery closest to us.  We all felt silly wearing hairnets and at the end we each got a package of cupcakes.  We all agreed that we liked the "cripples" better. 

My kids always get excited to have Hostess at Grandma and Grandpa's.  They love to go visit Grandpa at work and see the delivery trucks.  Those special memories will be just that, only memories now.  It's a sad, sad day.

I plan to see if any of our local stores have any Twinkies left.  We'll have one last round to say, "So long Twinkie, thanks for the memories."