Noong Una

Cheap young thrills

First posted 02:14am (Mla time)

Jan 25, 2006 By Marla Miniano

Inquirer Editor's Note: Published on Page C4 of the January 25, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

BEFORE Lay’s and Hershey’s invaded the Philippine junk-food industry, children of the ’90s happily munched away on their friendly neighborhood sari-sari store’s treasures: candies and chocolate bars, crackers and chips, biscuits and bubble gum. There were corn snacks with little trinkets inside, cookies with colorful icing, and popsicles you had to share with a friend. And the best part of experiencing the junk food rush was this: for P20 or less, you were guaranteed to have a feast between your sticky fingertips.

Texas, Bazooka and Big Boy bubble gum. We loved Texas because it was softer than the other brands, and it stayed sweet for a long time, and we loved Bazooka for the comic strips inside the wrapper. But we loved Big Boy the best because, really, who can ever forget that commercial? All together now, “Big big gum, for big big bubbles!”

may contest pa sa e@t bul@g@... yung palakihan ng bubble... nakompleto ko ata yung buong comic strip e.

Cheezels and Chickadees. They didn’t really taste any different from the usual corn snacks, but they won our hearts because they had toys inside: temporary tattoos and those icky things that would grow when you submerged them in water. They also had the Hop ‘n’ Pop, which, according to one of my friends “was a disaster waiting to happen because it looked like something grownups use; something little kids should know absolutely nothing about.”

oo! bumibili ako nito dahil sa libre! hehehe!

Pritos Ring. The fun was in putting one ring on each finger before eating them up. The fun stopped when you accidentally bit yourself and ended up bawling your lungs out.

uhuh! i felt like a princess with those rings!

White Rabbit and Joy, aka the whistle candy. Simply because the idea of edible paper and candy that creates noise appeals to children of all ages.

minsan nga binibigay ko kay lola yung white paper kasi un malambot di tulad nung kendi mismo... baket ngayon puro un matigas na brown nalang nakikita ko? nakakainis din minsan yung joy kung nawawasak.. hindi na ako maka-whistle!

Iced Gem Biscuits. The cookie part tastes like Marie biscuits, and the icing part tastes like the candy flowers in our birthday cakes. The different colors of the icing were a definite plus.

kinder food! hehehe

Tivoli and Coney Island ice cream. Tivoli’s Funwich gave us sticky fingers and chocolate stains on our white uniforms, but since it was incredibly yummy, we didn’t care about the mess (or, at least, not until our mothers started scolding us). We miss Coney Island’s pistachio and bubble gum-flavored ice cream.

bakit wala na nito?!? sobrang nakaka-miss! tsaka yung eskimo roll!

Nips. Smarties were “cooler” than Nips because they came in tubes, but we loved the latter because they made a rainbow (chocolate Nips), a choco rainbow—and they colored all the flowers, and painted the trees, too. These tiny candy-covered chocolates were such a big part of our life that they even became an acronym for something else: Not In Proper Seat.

maka-nips ako! we make a rainbow!!

Snacku. We were such good little boys and girls back then. See? We ate our veggies without putting up a fight.

hindi ko ito masyadong nagustuhan. haha... kahit nung bata pa ako ayaw ko na ng gulay!

Haw Flakes. Because we were still too young to take Communion, we got someone to play the priest and lined up in front of him so we could stick out our tongues and receive our Haw Flakes. And, surprise surprise, they actually tasted like bread and wine!
body of Christ....

Brown Cow and Horlicks. Before Hershey’s, there was Brown Cow. Before Ovaltine and Ovalteenies, there were Horlicks and Horlicks Malties. We miss getting our chocolate fix from these oldies-but-goodies.
brown cooooooow! horliiiiiicks!!!

Fanta softdrinks. We insisted on drinking nothing else but these, refusing to acknowledge that the orange one tasted exactly like Royal Tru-Orange and the lemon one tasted exactly like Mountain Dew.Nano-Nano. The jingle says it all.
let's fantasize! nano nano....

So. Paging all junk-food manufacturers! Spare us from overpriced potato chips and overrated ice cream, please. If we plan to adapt an unhealthy lifestyle by bingeing on food with zero nutritional value, we don’t want to splurge. The way we see it, we want neither our stomachs nor our wallets to be empty. In our world, these cheap thrills will always rule. Always.