Child of the 1980's - Sugar Is A Four-Letter Word

                In today’s world nutritional information is hugely important when it comes to any food product.  Transparency is key as far as calories, fat, carbs, and any sort of additives go.  A healthier lifestyle is something one should strive for anyway, but it has come to the forefront of society especially in the 21^st century.  It’s not as if people did not care about their health back in the 1980’s, it was just that it was left up to a person to make the right choices on their own for what they put into their bodies.  However, it was during this decade that the changes became apparent when it came to certain food additives, especially sugar.  The 1980’s were the decade when sugar became a four-letter word.

                The area where this change was seen most had to have been breakfast cereals.  Perhaps it is because cereal was always one of my favorite things, and still is today, that I had many dealings with these changes.  So where did the changes become most obvious?  In the names of course.

                When 1980 began there were some very popular cereals which had been around for decades.  There was Sugar Crisp, which had debuted in 1949, Sugar Pops, which hit the market in 1950, Sugar Frosted Flakes, which was introduced in 1952, and Sugar Smacks which was released in 1953.  By the time 1985 dawned the cereals were called Super Golden Crisp, Corn Pops, Frosted Flakes, and Honey Smacks.  Why the change?

                Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s the sugar content in breakfast cereals kept increasing with companies become more brazen when it came to the fact that they were pumping kids full of the sweet stuff.  The counter-culture of the late 1960’s became the turning point as people began to think that maybe it wasn’t great for kids to be eating tons of sugar.  I have always enjoyed my sweet cereals so I am torn on this as I do see their point.  For example, two of the worst culprits of the sugar overload were, and still are, Golden Crisp and Honey Smacks.  Golden Crisp has a sugar content of 51%, meaning that 51% of the cereal’s weight is comprised of sugar, while Honey Smacks has a 55% sugar content.  Now, this is not meant to be some anti-sugar rant, I am just saying that I can see where people were coming from when the backlash against high-sugar cereals came to a head in the early 1980’s.  So a lot of manufacturers toned down the use of sugar, by changing the names, not really by lowering sugar amounts.

                Despite the name changes in some all-time favorites children of the 1980’s like myself were treated to some amazing flash in the pan cereals that could not have been exactly low in sugar.  Do you remember any of these short-lived 80’s breakfast names?  Dunkin’ Donuts Cereal, Ice Cream Cones, Nerds, OJ’s, Powdered Donutz Cereal, Rocky Road, S’Mores Crunch, Waffleo’s , Circus Fun.  They all sound very healthy.

                The 1980’s were definitely a golden age of breakfast cereals.  Even though the pushback against high sugar products was in full swing that didn’t stop manufacturers from creating some memorable meals for kids.  I know I definitely enjoyed my Saturday mornings in the 1980’s about as much as any time of my life, cereal and cartoon were a great mix.  What were your favorite cereals in the 1980’s?  Did you remember when the word sugar was featured in many of those old classics?  Come on back for more sweeter than sweet 1980’s memories!

Check out the previous Child of the 1980's blog all about the Drive-In.

41 - 3/9/11

Initial Impressions

Christopher Setterlund

41 – 3/9/11 – In My Footsteps Trip

Made a trip today up to Georgetown, Mass., and back to Ipswich to shoot it right.  270 total miles, $30 in gas thanks to the Middle East again.  Why only 2 towns?  That will become clearer as you read.

            I was cruising along Rt. 3 making great time until WHAM!  Traffic.  No, not at the Braintree Split where it usually happens, but around Exit 12 for those who know the area.  Ended up spending 45 minutes there crawling along and learning as many license plates of those around me.

            As we sat in traffic I decided to make the best of it and blasted Billy Ocean’s ‘Suddenly’ and sang it for all of those around me.  There was also some old man smoking in his car which was not a big thing except for the fact that he had all of his windows rolled up.  Slowly but surely there was more smoke in his car.  I guess just driving old was not challenging enough.

            I arrived in Georgetown an hour later than I wanted to.  I had never even heard of this town until a few months ago.  The first place I stopped at was the site of the Goodrich Massacre.  It is where a family was killed by angry Native Americans in 1692.  The problem I had with this was that it said that the site was ‘Ten rods east’ of the sign.  Rods?  What the hell are rods?  Who uses that unit of measurement?  So I snapped photos in that general direction but rods, really?

            I parked at an abandoned antiques shop so that I could cross the street to shoot the Samuel Brocklebank House, the town’s historical society.  Once I stepped out I heard what sounded like someone banging on the windows inside the antique shop.  I looked and saw nobody which creeped me out.  After shooting I came back to my car and waited and then heard the banging again.  Have to check and see if that building is haunted because there was nobody else there but me.  Nice.

            The Georgetown Town Hall is the first one I have seen that used to be something else.  It was originally a school a hundred years ago.

            I need to get a bumper sticker that warns people behind me that I make frequent stops like a mail truck.  That would have come into major use when I hit Ipswich.

            I stopped at Pentucket Pond, there was a woman and her daughter there as well, she gave me some really dirty stares.  Do I really look like one of those guys like you see in the horror movies?   Wait, don’t answer that.  It also snowed a little there too which helped me forget that lady who hated me.

            My GPS decided it would be funny to send me up a steep barely paved hill and down a similarly awful section of road in the Great Neck village of Ipswich.  Sure, it was technically the quickest route but one slip would have sent me off a cliff to my grave with the GPS’s British voice laughing.

            Ipswich has the most historic homes of any town I have ever seen thus far.  There was no way to photograph all, or even most of them, so I decided to focus on the 17^th century ones.  I counted eight of them in my travels, pretty impressive.  This is where I could have used the ‘frequent stops’ bumper sticker again.

            Went back and reshot the Whipple House c.1677, this time I actually spent the extra time to walk down to the really old Choate Bridge from 1764, there were so many cool spots.  I loved the Riverwalk which crossed over the Ipswich River.  The falls were great but not as great as the history of Ipswich and America mural painted on the side of the EBSCO Publishing building.  Amazing.

            Was psyched to stop at Dunkin’ D’s for a quick lunch until the lady alerted me that they had no hash browns, the essential part of any meal there.  What a rip off, although the lady asked me not to tell anyone that the boss there was so stupid that they didn’t order hash browns.  I agree.

            Castle Hill was the crown jewel of my trip.  Almost didn’t get in since they needed cash which I didn’t have, the guard didn't accept cards, yay.  I had to drive all the way back into town to find cash, no ATMs so I had to go into Shaw’s, bought me a 5-Hour Energy so it wasn't all bad.  Oh yeah and I didn’t eat my Dunkin’ D’s food for like an hour thanks to that craziness.

            The mansion at Castle Hill was featured in The Witches of Eastwick, the lady there last summer said The Next Karate Kid, I had to look it up to be sure but yes it was filmed there too.  Never saw either movie and seeing the grounds is as close as I will get.

            It ended up being so cold on top of Castle Hill that my hands were too numb to shoot any more photos.  In the end my battery was almost dead from Ipswich alone.  I figured that with it being late I should quit while ahead and save my last stop for another time.  See, the stupid traffic cost me an hour so it’s the traffic’s fault I stopped early.  Also, it was so obvious that nothing was going to top Castle Hill so why even bother.

            Still managed to get stuck in more traffic, this time going through Boston, and the damn GPS tried to make me drive in the Carpool Lane again, idiot.  You’ll see by the photos below that it was all worth it.  Ipswich was even better this time despite it being freaking cold.  Cheers!

The possibly haunted antiques shop.

Spotted this on my drive through Georgetown.

Part of the amazing mural along the Ipswich Riverwalk.

The incredible mansion atop Castle Hill.

21 - In My Footsteps Maine Trip - Day 2

Initial Impressions Maine

Day 2 - October 2, 2010

1.  Glad that it was a bright and sunny day, and yes the sun did wake me as I had hoped.

2.  Birch Point State Park is absolutely classic Maine with the pine trees on the rocks.

3.  The best view so far is from Owl’s Head Light, I have never seen a lighthouse at the top of stairs on top of a hill. 

4.  There was a guy in an orange shirt who basically shadowed me at Owl's Head Light, he took every shot I did in the same spot.  He saw my skills.

5.  I saw a DeLorean today too, had to pull off the road to take a shot of it.  I wonder if it was for sale?  I wanted to take it and drive 88 mph and see if I could go back in time.

6.  I love it when I put a location into my GPS and the GPS brings me round in a circle to almost the same spot, one way streets will do that.  I could have just walked.

7.  The Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse was awesome, granted it was a mile walk out but I got to go up in the lighthouse.  That is the lighthouse that shines through the window as I am trying to sleep.  Oh yeah and got some awesome shots of the light from a dock, too bad it was rolling from the waves so much that I felt sea sick!

8.  Of course there was a golf course next to the lighthouse, I’ll bet some of those holes have crazy views.  I wonder if after a hospital and maybe police station the towns all decide where a golf course could be built?

9.  Rockland has a great Main Street, one way but that’s all right.  It is even cooler driving through it when it's dark, there was an awesome sign for a diner which had the word E-A-T on different signs and each lit up one at a time.  Don't know why that interested me.

10. They have raspberry Fluff at Hannaford, do they have that anywhere else?  Don’t know why this interests me so much also.(By the way they do have it elsewhere, bought it at Shaw's when I got home to the Cape.)

11. Popped my Walmart cherry, yeah I had actually never been in one until today in Rockland.  I only went to the Dunkin’ Donuts inside though, so I still haven’t bought anything from them yet.

12. Thomaston seems like an average little town except for the fact that they have a “Museum on the Streets.”  It’s like a scavenger hunt trying to find the historic plaques in front of the historic places.  It was so much fun except for running back and forth across the streets and also pulling over quickly which did not please some of the locals.  Hey, what do you expect?

13. Camden Hills State Park is one of the best spots I have seen yet.  I got tons of amazing photos from the top of Mount Battie.  Although it’s only 800 feet high it actually helped because you can still make out homes and other buildings below.

14. There was even a tower much like Scargo Tower up top, I basically saw all of the places I am going this week from that spot, well not all of them, but you get the point.

15.  I stood by and listened to a husband and wife argue as to which direction south was from the top of the mountain.  The husband was right, but I figured it would be better for him if I did not confirm this to his wife.

16.  Camden is every bit a classic ski town.  The only trouble was visiting it on a Saturday meant that the main streets were clogged and it took way too long to drive short distances.  Again it would have been easier to just walk.

17.  I had been driving up and down Bay View Street in Camden trying to find the best view of Curtis Island lighthouse only to discover that it was shielded by trees no matter where I looked.  Even on top of Mount Battie I could only make out the very top of it.  Damn trees!

18.  Finally defeated that damn fly, I know I swatted him at least 3 times, but finally he went down.

Photos of the Day:

Owl's Head Light at the top of the stairs.

Delorean in Owl's Head

Rockland Breakwater Light

The town of Camden from Mount Battie.

5 - June 4, 2010

Initial Impressions

Christopher Setterlund

June 4, 2010

1.      Sorry lady, but if you are going to start changing into your workout clothes in a room with a huge window facing the gym of course people are going to stop and stare.  Not all dumb jocks are men, you are an example.

2.      I believe that on Cape Cod there are more Dunkin’ Donuts per capita than people.  They out number churches, police stations, and hospitals combined.  I guess coffee is more important than religion, safety, and health, oh wait, hell yeah it is.

3.      Not every day that I nearly step on a foot and a half long brown snake as a hawk hovers overhead.  Not sure if it was looking to eat it or if it was coincidence, but it was cool none the less.

4.      Only 6 months ago I saw Wes Welker tear two ligaments in his knee.  Now he is practicing during the OTA’s?  I just want to know what he took to heal so fast so that I can have some on hand in case I get hit by a bus.

5.      If you keep missing a connection by one second does that mean it’s not meant to be, or that you need to arrive one second earlier?

6.      Didn’t realize how much twin beds suck until I slept in a queen-sized for the first time in 7 months last night.  Twin beds are like sleeping on balance beams, roll an inch too far and you’re on the floor.

7.      One of my all-time favorite sports heroes, Ken Griffey Jr., retired today.  With all of the steroid-era players I believe in my heart that he was clean and therefore one of the greatest ever to play the game.  We will see him again, in 5 years at Cooperstown.

8.      Why does Hollywood feel the need to remake/reboot so many films?  Now it’s The Crow, one of my favorites.  Think up some new ideas, I have plenty, give me a call.

9.      Umpire Jim Joyce made possibly the worst call in history as he called a man safe at first with 2 outs in the 9^th.  Why the worst?  Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga had a perfect game going.  The man was clearly out and this umpire ruined it.  Apologies only go so far.  They should reverse his call. 

10.   In the Gulf of Mexico the oil is still pouring out, just thought I’d keep that in everyone’s minds since it’s been more than six weeks.  It was a joke to begin with, a disgrace after a week or so, now it might be the beginning of the end of oil period, the outcry for clean energy is going to go off the charts.

11.   The phrase ‘get your (blank) on’ needs to go, it is so irritatingly over used.

12.   So sad to hear about the loss of the legend John Wooden.  One of the greatest coaches in sports history and one of the greatest ambassadors for basketball as well.  At age 99 he lived an amazing life, rest in peace sir.

13.   Only when you go off Cape do you realize just how much open space/farm land there is even just over the bridge.  It blows my mind each time.

Quote of the Day:  “Every artist was first an amateur.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Song of the Day:  All These Things That I’ve Done – The Killers

Photo of the Day: The Bourne Bridge