Posted on 11/18/2012 7:51:43 AM PST by jdsteel
I went to buy some Ho Ho’s but they were gone, and so was a part of America.
When I heard that Hostess was declaring bankruptcy it made me sad. Probably not as sad at the 18,000 people that used to work for them but it did affect me.
Oh, I knew that I was partly to blame. When I was a child I would gobble down Ho Ho’s and chocolate cupcakes with abandon. I could burn through a half of a box of Ho Ho’s and a half gallon of Vitamin D milk in about 15 minutes. My elementary school lunches were almost always peanut butter sandwiches made with Wonder Bread. I was a happy repeat customer even if my mom was the one that did the buying. Now, like most baby boomers I try to keep sweets, fat and carbohydrates to a minimum. Pasta is a guilty pleasure and the snacks made by Hostess just aren’t worth the extra time on the treadmill to me. I am sure that I am not alone with these changes to my life and my diet.
Still, when I heard the last straws that broke the back of the once mighty Hostess were the deadly combination of unions and Obamacare I decided to buy one last box of Ho Ho’s for old time’s sake. So off I went to my local Giant Eagle, the largest supermarket in my suburb of Pittsburgh.
By the time I got to the grocery store the shelves that once held Hostess products were laid bare. All that were left were a few sad looking Sno Balls. Gone were the Ho Ho’s, the Ding Dongs, the Donettes. Gone were the Dolly Madison cakes and yes, gone were the Twinkies.
A woman standing beside me in the grocery aisle turned to me and said “I can’t understand the people that blame our current President for Hostess’s problems. Twinkies are so good I can’t believe some other company won’t start to make them”.
I looked at her and said “Hostess said that if they were to survive the costs of Obamacare the unions would have to renegotiate their contracts, and they wouldn’t do it. So they are shutting it down. For 10 years after the steel mills closed here in Pittsburgh I kept hearing about how the mills were coming back and so were all of those jobs. Guess what; they didn’t”.
I had gone to the store to buy some Ho Ho’s but they were gone, and so was a part of America.
It’s Moochelle Obama’s fault. She wants you to eat peas instead.
Somewhere in her forest bunker the great Sasquatch that is Moochelle is eating them all now.
If we were to bet on winners and losers, I think Hostess would have been a better bet than Fisker Motors, GM, or Solyndra. Besides, Congress is full of Twinkies, Ho-Ho’s, Zingers, and Fruit Pies - a Twinkie bailout should have been a no-brainer. What may happen now, a Mexican company will likely buy the brand and start importing back to the US. Maybe they will partner with the pot-drug cartels and satify ‘the munchies’ when they create ‘the munchies’.
All the Ho Hos work for Barry Benghazi now. Check the Sunday morning talk shows. They’ll be the ones with their pockets full of condoms.
My great gram lived with me from ages 93 to 96. Several times I accidently left a full box of twinkies out and went on with the day. When I remembered to check they would all be gone. She literally would eat the whole box over several hours...LOL.... Only happened a few times but we still laugh about it. She lived to age 97. Sadly she had a fall and broke both her hips so her last few months were spent in a nursing home. We still would sneak her some twinkies though.
“For 10 years after the steel mills closed here in Pittsburgh I kept hearing about how the mills were coming back and so were all of those jobs.”
Yeah, I remember those days too. College buddies of mine lived in and around “the Burgh”. Pittsburgh & surrounding areas slowly emptied out and all the while those remaining clung to rumors that this mill or that was going to reopen. I suspect that they knew it wasn’t true but a pretty lie is a seductive thing.
Then they came for...
We also tried to secure some Twinkies and Ho Hos. No luck either. We checked about twenty places, and there wasn’t a single Hostess product left.
Wait until the union workers reach the time when the excitement is over and they are home and jobless.
She can’t understand...
Obama’s America doesn’t deserve the Twinkie.
That is from a different time and place.
Obama’s America deserves dirt.
But to the degree that their demise was caused by filthy,despicable,pig excrement Maoist union leaders I just want to....well,I won't go on.Don't wanna be banned.
All I have to say to those union leaders and to the workers who stayed out until the end...I hope every one of you *and* all your family members starve to death!
LOL...Well said!
The problem was that neither Gus or George at the loading dock could ever load the Ho-Ho’s. Neither could Bob the truck driver. They had to call Morty, the only designated Ho-Ho loader, who might be in a good mood to load Ho-Ho’s or a bad mood. If Morty wasn’t there, then the craftsman (you had to be with the right union and have the right credentials) replacement had to show the union badge he was ok.
To be honest, you could have hired two guys from the ‘hood’ to load Ho-Ho’s for the same price that you were paying Morty, but it’s best not to bring up this topic. The ‘hood’ guys would have been fairly happy...shown up on time....and would have been willing to be drug-tested if you required it. But you couldn’t hire them because they weren’t specially qualified and hooked to the union.
Here’s the final tabulation that you need to make. They will eventually sell the name and recipe for Ho-Ho’s to Little Debbie (my humble guess). The Little Debbie folks....using non-union labor and trucking....will turn millions in profit for 2013...bringing us their version of Ho-Hos’s.
The loser in all this mess? The little guys named Morty who were the private union loader at the dock for Ho-Hos. It’s hard to find another job like that...that payed so well...and you never really appreciated the job or the stupidity that the Unions attached to it.
If you get desperate for Twinkies, you can make your own ... I didn’t know that there are ‘canoe’ baking pans so you can get the Twinkie shape, but found the pan online yesterday ... learn something new all the time! :-)
My favorites are Twinkies and when I told my mom they were liquidating, no more Twinkies, she sort of did the ‘uh huh’ number .... suddenly she looked up with sharp attention ... “wait a minute, NO more Ho Ho’s?” I had to tell her that was the sad fact. She’s not a happy camper. I’m sure someone will come up with a Ho Ho’s recipe so you can make your own of those as well as Twinkies .... but they will never be as good as the ‘originals’.
“...I hope every one of you *and* all your family members starve to death!”
What a stupid and immature thing to say.
I hope your wish for their children to “starve to death” is directed at the Bakers Union and not the route drivers.
What will that one guy in Zombieland do now that they no longer make Ho Ho's?
Great story. My grandfather was still eating bacon and eggs every morning at 96. He quit riding a motorcycle at 93.
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