Sweet Good-byes

When you need bread where do you go? The bread store, right? I mean, where else would you get bread?

Oh, you say you get yours at the grocery store?

Yeah, me too. Only we used to get bread at the "bread store". Until yesterday, when Amusing Dad stopped there only to find the place shuttered - another victim to the current recession. It made me sad. There are a lot of fond memories for me because of the bread store.

Growing up, the Wonder Hostess Outlet was what my mom called "the bread store", because it was pretty much the only place she'd buy her bread. But she also bought things like Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Ho's and Suzie Q's. We all loved to hear her saying she was making a trip to the bread store. When she got home our freezer would be loaded up with all these goodies and we could count on finding one in our lunch most days. And sometimes we (meaning me, although I'm pretty sure my siblings did the same thing) would sneek down to that freezer and pull out a frozen cupcake or other treat and eat it right then and there. Yup, frozen Ho Ho's might even be better than thawed.

By the time I got married I had forgotten about the bread store. It wasn't on my shopping route, nor did I find Suzie Q's and their ilk as appealing any more. But then one day my husband came home with a box of Twinkies and a guilty smile. He'd made a stop at the "bread store". I watched him put that box in the freezer with a quick explanation - they tasted better frozen. Aha! Another freezer Twinkie thief!

When his job took him to the other side of town, close to the Wonder Hostess outlet, we began to buy most of our bread there again. In fact I'd gotten used to calling him near the end of the work day to ask him to swing by for a loaf or two.

Suddenly those days are gone. No more cheap, but good Texas Toast. No more discount Ding Dongs and Ho Ho's.

I guess I can be thankful for one thing: my kids won't grow up being freezer Twinkie thieves.