****UPDATE: And so it has come to pass and Hostess is officially asking a judge for not only bankruptcy but liquidation. Due to the strike of 5,000 bakers the owners say they just can't make it anymore and will lay off the entire workforce of 18,500 employees. While the company will go under Hostess is planning to auction off the recipes to the highest bidder. So it is possible twinkies, ho hos, etc. will live on in some form so we will just have to wait and see. It's also inevitable that this will lead to a run on their treats at local stores, but keep in mind, with all preservatives in their product you could buy up all the twinkies and hold on to them for a year when store supplies have run out and then re-sell them on Ebay for a profit--if you are into that kind of thing. There are places, like Home Town Favorites, that specialize in this kind of thing and do pretty well. If you are only slightly thinking about getting a box to walk down memory lane I would suggest you not delay otherwise you will be fighting with someone moderately oversized individual in thier motorized scooter roaring down the grocery store aisle and zeroing in that last box on the shelf. Trust me, it won't be pretty if they don't get it, especially for you. Take heed, don't get trampled or run over, but get them now while supplies last.******
Hostess corporation has filed for bankruptcy only two years after emerging from a previous bankruptcy. We all know Hostess as they have become known as the king of junk food for a generation or more of us. (This even though they also do some healthy snacks and the whole Wonder Bread thing.) Of course for most of us we all know them for the twinkie a taste treat for many a kid for nearly 80 years. I remember fondly as a child when we would stop by the quickie mart for gas and I would run in and grab a twinkie off the shelf and beg the dad to please please please buy it for me (I think back in the late 60's early 70's they were only 25 or 35 cents each). As with most parents he would just buy it to shut me up but I didn't care. I would take it in hand and run back to the backseat of the car and and slowly unwrap the plastic, peeling it almost like a banana. Then I would bite into the sticky, spongy, sweet cake and feel the sugar rush of the creme filling as it exploded in my mouth. I chew with gusto and before I know it--three big bites and it's gone and I collapse on the seat in a sugar high licking any excess twinkie off the plastic wrapping.
This rite of childhood pretty got repeated anytime we went to a food store and at the grocery store I just badgered them into a full box and I took one with my bagged lunches everyday. Every now and then the folks would bring home ho ho's--wrapped in their little foil packages for "freshness" I enjoyed them and would actually unroll them before I ate them, but for the most part these were (and still are) my father's favorite of the hostess line. But I remained a total twinkie lover. As the years passed and I reached high school and the like many things in our childhood I fell out of favor with the twinkie. Maybe because they seemed to get smaller and the luscious creme filling also seemed to get less and less or maybe my hands just got bigger and it made it seem the twinkie was smaller but I stand by my belief they put less creme inside over the years and of course the cost went up. And no I didn't go over to the dark side of the Little Debbie brand either--Little Debbie's were always cheaper and dad tried to slip them in, but to me they were just a white trash substitute for the real thing--we might of been a little redneck but we weren't no white trash that's for sure.
Anyway as I got older my taste buds changed and I got hooked on Pop-tarts and Mountain Dew--sugar highs (with essential vitamins!) and caffeine highs that pretty much propelled me through college and beyond for awhile...but alas that is a whole other story.
It would be a shame if Hostess goes under as they really are an American institution like Hershey's and yes it's junk food but seriously people we know that, it's like you know eating cake is bad but it's personal choice to eat what you like--you just have to be prepared for the consequences or the fatness whichever comes first. I'm sure they will come through this as some foreign company will buy them up and continuing the goal of enlarging our waistlines and we will happily indulge and relive those fond childhood memories with every bite. TWINKIE ON!!
