Thursday Thirteen #52

13 Things I Liked as a Child (But No Longer).

1. Fruit Snacks - We used to beg our mother to let us take fruit snacks in our school lunch. Mom's standard response was, "They're just candy, and the school says you can't bring candy in your lunch." We tried to explain that the school had no problem with fruit snacks and everyone else brought them...to no avail. I buy them for my own kids now, and I tried some the other day. She was right. Sugary sweet and not really all that good. (We tried the same thing with Kudos Bars and her response was the same. Totally unfair.) =)

2. Velveeta - I used to love Velveeta, and wasn't really interested in eating other kinds of cheese. I'm still OK with it melted in recipes, sort of, but I'd much rather have real cheese. The thought of just eating a slice of it is revolting.

3. Hair Bows - You know the kind I'm talking about. Those huge bows made of cloth or metal or whatever. (I had some friends with hairbows made of balloons [uninflated, of course] and boy was I jealous.) Now when I look back at our pictures, I realize we looked like we were about to take off, like tiny little pre-adolescent helicopters.

4. Suicides (pop drinks) - I'm pretty sure kids are still doing this, but I don't know why. This is when you mix different kinds of pop together up at the fountain. I remember doing this particularly at Pizza Hut. Again, I don't know why.

5. Arcade Games - Another thing from Pizza Hut. We would beg Mom and Dad for quarters to play Pac-Man and put in the Juke box. They would just point out that once you used those quarters, they would be gone, and you'd have nothing tangible to show for it. We still begged. They didn't give in. Now I'm already having the exact same discussions with my little ones. Especially about the little machines outside Wal-mart with the jaw-sized pieces of bubble gum and the trinkets made out of lead and Panda dung.

6. Singing Solos/Drama - I honestly don't remember the first time I performed a song on stage, I was too young. As a preacher's kid it was just all part of life. My Mom even talked me into painting my face like a mime and doing sign language/miming to different songs at the nursing home and etc. Looking back, it scares me to death. I can still sing in church, but I definitely prefer a group with me, or at least one other person.

7. Science - I still like science, but when I was little I used to do all sorts of crazy science experiments in my bedroom and imagine that I could be a scientist when I grew up. That was before I had discovered my math inabilities and the fact that chemistry and physics were basically just math.

8. Chef Boyardee - We ate so very many little microwaveable cans of Chef Boyardee Italian meals for school that I can't so much as look at one now. My children love spaghetti-o's and I'm sure they would like those little containers if I bought them one, but I don't think I could stand to smell them again.

9. Braces - Yes, as a child I thought it would be cool to have braces. I know, you're probably picking up on the fact that I wasn't a very intelligent child. I refrain from comment. Little did I know that I would be spending four years in braces through Jr. High and High School. I learned my lesson.

10. Cookie Crisp - Another thing we begged Mom to buy for us. She said it was just like eating chocolate chip cookies with milk, and we said, "yeah, so?" After I got married I bought a box to eat. They were OK, but definitely not as good as I had built them up to be in my mind. And definitely not as good as chocolate chip cookies and milk.

11. Pop Rocks - I don't exactly know why these were so appealing. I mean, a candy that pops when you put it in your mouth? Now I just find them disturbing.

12. Glasses - Yeah, I know. Dumb. I just thought people with glasses looked so cool. I wanted them so bad that I was always asking Mom to take me for an eye exam. In second grade, when I really did start having trouble seeing, Mom was skeptical of my motivation. By the time I got to the optometrist all I could see was the big E. It wasn't Mom's fault. I was like the boy who cried wolf.

13. Hi-C - This was just basically Kool-Aid in a juice box. We drank quite a bit of these with our lunches, though, because there weren't many packable drink options back in the day. Now I have no interest at all in juice boxes. Besides, they're a mess because my kids squeeze them.

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