Sometimes we have to say goodbye long before we are ready. We lose people we love. A cherished pet dies. Our favorite pair of shoes wears out and has to be discarded. A relationship we thought would last forever crumbles into disarray and disappears. These types of farewells are often painful in big and small ways.
But there are also the little goodbyes that are hardly monumental but still take us by surprise and we lament. This past week I learned that Famous Chocolate Wafers are no more.
Now I have not purchased these thin, crispy chocolate cookies in years. Yet they are such a part of my childhood that I mourned when I heard that Nabisco had discontinued them. My mother used to make their icebox cake dessert for her bridge club and fortunately there were always enough servings that our family got to enjoy this treat as well.
It was a simple dessert but you had to plan ahead. You used heavy whipping cream (the kind you whip yourself, not that which comes in a squirt can—though my mother did resort to using Cool Whip in her later years) and you whip the cream with just a very small amount of sugar. Then you spread the whipped cream on the cookies, making small stacks and then finally, you turn the cookie stacks on edge and cover the entire roll with more whipped cream. Then (and this is the planning ahead part) it must sit in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours so that the cookies will soften, absorbing some of the whipped cream. Simple and delicious!
This recipe must have appeared nationwide as I remember a college friend who grew up in Brooklyn going crazy-happy when I made this as our dessert when he was visiting us in rural Virginia. He, too, remembered his mother making this dessert when he was growing up. I can only imagine that the recipe appeared in all the magazines targeting women in the 1950’s.
Gone. No more Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers. I was sad to hear this and I wished I had known it was coming so I could have bought one or two boxes just for old time’s sake and for making one or two final ice box cake desserts. Too late.
Products disappear. I am clueless as to how manufacturers make these decisions. We also said goodbye to the Choco Taco this year but we were able to find a small remnant in the freezer of a local gas station. There was quite an uproar at its demise and Klondike said they would “consider” a return but it felt like a very half-hearted promise.
Yes, products come and products go. I still remember those little wax bottles of sickeningly sweet flavored syrup that my brother and I loved. Probably not a bad thing to discontinue, but we loved not only the sticky syrup inside but biting the tops off those little wax bottles in their very cute little cardboard carrying case. You have to wonder what those little bottles were promoting to our childhood minds. A nik-L-nip today and a bottle from the mini-bar fridge in later life? Yikes.
Remember the days (some of you will) when a treat cost a nickel? I can remember my mother giving my brother and I each a quarter and that would get us into the movie, buy us popcorn, a drink and usually one of those giant Charms suckers that would outlast even a double feature. And guess what? Those giant Charms suckers are no longer around either!
Even our very favorite savory products get pulled from production. A few years ago we campaigned McCormicks to bring back their Hot Shot, a wonderful blend of red and black pepper, that was a staple for our marinades and grilling. They did write back but essentially said, “Don’t hold your breath.”
When our daughter was pregnant with her first child and having trouble keeping any food down, she had a longing for a cookie she remembered from her childhood. It was the Golden Raisin Biscuit. She couldn’t find them in Massachusetts but surely we as future grandparents could come to the rescue. What? They were discontinued!?! However, not to be discouraged, our search did reveal that we could order the British version from the Vermont Country Store. The internet for the win!
We have since discovered, thanks to The Great British Baking Show, that these biscuits can be homemade and are sometimes known as “squashed flies biscuits” because the currants (or raisins) are mashed into a dark fruity pulp between the two biscuits/cookies.
We may not like it but sometime we just have to bid farewell to a product. Gone are those days. Prices change and so do the times.
What items have disappeared that you still miss? I wonder what will disappear from our personal landscape of today?
I guess sometimes we just have to be prepared to say goodbye.
It and me want to make that whipped cream and chocolate cookie dessert too! Darn!
Sylvie
Good one Jeanne! I don’t remember the Nabisco wafers. We didn’t have them growing up. But those Nik o lips. You may be right about a subliminal message. I can’t think of anything that I miss, but I have been having this problem with Trader Joe’s lately. They discontinue items quite often. Items we really like.