Blast from the Past

Candy Corn with it’s iconic, corn kernel shape, and (white, orange, and yellow) trio of colors was one of the first candies marketed for the fall harvest season. 

Did you know? “Chicken Feed,” the candy’s original name was invented in the 1880s by George Renninger. Later, in the 1950s, it became a popular Halloween candy.

 Love it or hate it, candy corn is an enduring classic.

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Fun Facts. CheeriOats cereal was invented in 1941. The name was changed to Cheerios in 1945. 

The Cheerios box pictured above is from 1948. It features the famous masked hero, The Lone Ranger. Lone Ranger was a popular western radio serial, no pun intended in the 1940s. It gained further popularity in the ‘50s, as a television series, and decades later in various movies.

In my middle-grade novel, Dakota Brave, set in 1947, boys cut Lone Ranger masks off the back of a Cheerios box to wear to a costume party. On the back of this vintage box, pictured above, kids could clip off a model of a frontier town.

Depending of the region and size of the box, Cheerios retailed for .15 to .45 cents a box in 1948. Today, this vintage box is offered on Ebay for $250. 

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One thing topping the list of back-to-school prep is a good hair cut at the local barbershop. Post-war, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, male haircuts celebrate victory with a little style beyond the military crew cut.

In Dakota Brave, one of the middle-grade books I'm writing, 10-year-old Victor's hair is combed back in what he describes as a spiffy wave. What was the hair style of the day? Hair swept upwards and back at the top, (known as a quiff), sleek with short sides. That's a super, swell, and spiffy school picture, Lowell!