My favorite childhood snacks were (in no particular order):1) Frozen Tang in a dixie cup scraped with a spoon.2) Bacos – delicious bacon-flavored soy chips.3) Screaming Yellow Zonkers – buttery-sweet popcorn clusters.4) Space Food Sticks (chocolate was the best flavor).The first three of these are readily available still, though grape and grapefruit flavored Tang are extinct and you’re most likely to find Zonkers in the Dollar Store. But Space Food Sticks vanished completely. The last time I found some was at a little market in Santa Fe around 1979, and they were dismally stale. I’ve been mourning them ever since.Until now. In case you don’t remember them, Space Food Sticks were delicious edible rods developed by Pillsbury for NASA and marketed to the public as part of the space frenzy happening in the ‘70s. They were like doughy Tootsie Rolls with an absolutely unique flavor that became the prized jewel on my crown of snackfoods – the perfect landing pad after a demanding session of playing with Major Matt Mason dolls or watching a crappy episode of Six Million Dollar Man.Recently, I found Space Food Sticks online and ordered a case of them for $30. I’ll admit that I was expecting a box the size of a filing cabinet rather than the modest package of 24 sticks pictured above, but I’ve alwasy been unrealistic about things like that (like when I ordered the 99¢ karate course that turned out to be a brochure describing a $100 karate course they wanted me to buy). Still, that just makes them $1.25 each, which is a bargain – they’re much larger and more bar-like than the originals. And the taste? Bellisimo. Exactly as I remembered.The Space Food Stick man who called me after my order said they were coming out with smaller, more rod-like sticks soon. I can hardly wait. I’ll let you know when that happens.
Space Food Sticks!
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