Lists, Hunger, and Rhapsody

I use lists. I always kept lists of what comics I had in my collection and what comics I needed. One facet of my comic collection of which I am proudest is my complete run of Sheldon Mayer's brilliant Sugar & Spike series, from the first issue in 1956 right up through the 98th issue in 1971; of course it would be impossible to collect the complete run of any title without maintaining lists.

My use of lists extends far beyond my focus on comics. In fact, I have lists consisting of lists that are then subcategorized into more detailed lists. One time when some students of mine made a satirical video that included one student portraying me, "I" was reading down a clipboard list of things to do and then "I" turned away to sneeze and then "I" returned to the clipboard list to put a check next to "sneeze."

When I hear a piece of music that I want to add to my CD collection, I don't immediately run out to the record store to purchase it. Instead I add the title to a list and try getting it on ebay instead of paying full retail. For DVDs, I always check the price at www.deepdiscountdvd.com (recently shortened to www.deepdiscount.com) and, very often, their price (which includes shipping) cannot be beat on ebay.

One list that I have maintained for many years consists of grocery items that I remember liking but which are no longer manufactured. (I don't presume to suggest that I'm the only one who ever thought to keep such a list; look here for one that I came across by another individual.) Let me mention some interesting things on my list that you may have forgotten or maybe never heard of.

Gorilla Milk (circa 1960s) was a powdered flavoring to be added to milk to turn it blue and make it taste grape; there were other flavors/colors also, but for some reason blue/grape is fixated in my memory. I never liked the stuff, and I'm glad it's no longer manufactured. (Maybe you thought this was going to be a feelgood list of things I miss? There's some of that coming too but please always expect the unexpected from theHayfamzone Blog!) Here is what Gorilla Milk looked like.

Dannon Apricot Yogurt (circa mid-1970s) was my favorite flavor of yogurt ever. Yes, I know Dannon still makes peach. Apricot was better. Look here for the history of yogurt and the history of the Dannon company.

Marathon candy bars (circa 1974) were twelve or fifteen inches long and consisted of a braiding of caramel covered with chocolate. The advertising tagline was that it took a long time to eat one, and it did! A certain confectioner is counting on a lot of people wistfully remembering Marathon bars, because they are marketing their Curly Wurly bars as a modern-day analogue of Marathon. And so much for my memory! That website says that Curly Wurly bars are the same length as Maraton bars: EIGHT inches. Look here to see what the Marathon wrapper looked like.

Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Chip Cookies (circa 1980s) were so great in such a basic way; I can't believe they stopped making them. Doesn't anybody else miss these? I couldn't find a single link about them.

Chum Gum (circa 1960s through 1980s) was a barber shop staple at Mike the Barber's, and maybe at your barber shop too. (Mike the Barber also gave me comics after they had been in the reading pile for a while; one I remember clearly getting from him was the issue of Green Lantern/Green Arrow that had the hunting dogs on the cover.) Look here!

Kellogg's Banana Frosted Flakes (circa 1977) were regular Sugar Frosted Flakes with miniscule banana tidbits affixed on the flakes. I liked them. Click here to see what a box of the cereal looked like, but I think I remember a second version which had an image of Tony the Tiger piloting a banana boat down a river. Not kidding. Click here to see a cool image of 1300 cereal boxes, each one zoomable for enlargement!

Kellogg's Concentrate cereal (circa 1977) was a cereal that you were invited to sprinkle on other cereals! I would describe the flakes as being like small circles of onion-skin paper, a texture quite unlike that of any other cereal before or since. Just like a big K indicated Special K, a big C was emblazoned on Kellogg's Concentrate; click here to see a box of it.

Next time, comics themselves will return to centerstage in the Hayfamzone Blog, right where they belong! Spring vacation is officially over!