We’ll be hanging out with some young children during our visit to Vermilion, and yesterday supplies were laid in to prepare for their arrival. They included a few boxes of Nabisco Animal Crackers, which looked pretty much like what the boxes looked like back when I was a kid (except for the nutritional information prominently displayed on the front of the box, which was not included until well after the reckless, uninformed ’60s ended).
It’s reassuring to see that animal crackers are still a staple of the young kid diet. I well remember sitting down at our formica-topped kitchen table with a big glass of ice-cold whole milk and a box of animal crackers for a wholesome post-grade school snack. You’d put, say, a lion in your mouth (although elephants were the best), take a slug of milk, let the milk interact with the cracker until the cracker virtually dissolved, then squish it against the roof of your mouth with your tongue to let all of the tasty animal cracker goodness immerse your taste buds. You could just eat a crunchy dry cracker, of course, but the immersion/dispersion method was universally recognized as the preferred kid option.
It was interesting to see the nutritional information related to animal crackers and to learn that the recommended “serving size” is 12 crackers. Hah! I sneer at any self-respecting kid who, once opening a box of animal crackers, would not consume the entire box. In reality, it was almost impossible not to, unless one of your siblings took a few. According to the nutrition information, that meant you were likely to ingest about 300 calories from your snack, with a meaningful input of sodium and sugar, too. Thank god the crackers don’t have any saturated fat and are a good source of calcium!
Webner House 