Potato chips: An 'Adults Only' snack in the 70's.

When we were little, my sister and I swore that our strictly-enforced bedtime only existed so that our parents could watch TV and eat potato chips without having to share them with us. As soon as our bedroom door closed for the night, we could hear the rustling of the potato chip bag as our parents consumed the 'sacred' snacks. It was mighty hard to get to sleep when you could hear your parents munching away on the chips that apparently were 'too good' for kids. In 1970, 'too good' was anything that cost over a dollar a bag.

We occasionally were permitted to finish the stale, pulverized remains of a bag of chips, but they had to be shared between us-- and anyone who grew up with a younger sister knows that the older sister never gets anything, because the younger sister starts wailing to Mommy and then she gets the rest of the bag... this taught me to eat while the eatin' was good, because I never knew when my sister would get that 'I'm takin' the rest of the bag away from you by yellin'!' look in her eye.

The junk-food mystique also extended to McDonald's, which was like Paradise to kids growing up in a snack-impaired household. The fact that trips to McDonald's depended on the generosity of my parents made them even more valuable-- and rare! I swore that when I was old enough to drive, I'd eat at McDonald's every damned day if I wanted to.

True to my word, when I arrived at my teen years, my summer vacations consisted of going out for drives with my sister and my friend, and going to McDonald's practically every day. At first it was great-- FINALLY, I could go there regardless of whether or not I'd 'behaved' that day! But over time, I noticed that the food didn't taste as good as it had when I'd been younger. I still have no idea if it was because the management had cheaped-out on ingredients, or whether it was because it was no longer the forbidden fruit.

Today, McDonald's has become a place to go when I'm too tired (or too lazy) to cook-- it's no longer a treat. I guess that's a sign of being an adult... when the promise of a trip to McDonald's no longer makes you dance around the room.

Now that I'm older, I'm wondering if America's kids wouldn't have benefitted from my parents' "No chips for kids" rule-- American teens are the fattest in the world. When I was little, you couldn't get chips at school; you had to depend on your parents to buy them. I actually feel sorry for today's teens... there's really nothing left for them to lust after anymore.