15 Brands that Took a Dive

While puttering around in my library I stumbled across a calorie-counter book from 1981. After 25 years, it was interesting to recall some of the then-popular brands.

1. Tid-Bit Crackers--No longer flying off the shelves. I think they were shaped like giant cribbage pegs.

2. Bugles--Crackers shaped like road construction cones--apparently sales crashed.

3. Tostino's Pizza--Gone but not forgotten, flawed but never thawed.

4. Burger King Whaler--A sandwich that sunk--perhaps harpooned by Greenpeace.

5. Chun King--Once an island of oriental delight, now submerged beneath the ConAgra ocean of brands.

6. Oceanspray Cranprune Juice--Despite the melodious name, this juice lost its juice.

7. Bubble Up Soda--Alive, but barely breathing. Sounds like something you'd find in a peat bog.

8. Shasta--Another soft drink whose sales have softened.

9. Good Humor Whammy Bars--Where, oh where did they go?

10. The wine categories sound like a foreign language--Bardolino, de Chaunac, Concord, Muscatel, Rhine, Riesling, Rose...what were we thinking? What were we drinking?

11. Mug-O-Lunch soup--Must have tasted as bad as it sounds.

12. Sugar Smacks Cereal--Definitely pre-Atkins.

13. Buc Wheats Cereal--Great name, grey taste.

14. Ayds weight loss candy--Never take the creator of this brand name to Vegas.

15. Durkee Beef Puffs--Now it's dog food, but best as I can make out, people were eating it back in '81.

Well...nothing lasts forever. Thank goodness.

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