I’ve written about legacy brands before – the brands we love because our family aspired to own or the ones that they would only buy, no matter what. This is about the products (and sometimes the brands for that product) that I DON’T love. To that end, my parents, and especially my siblings have worked hard for years to help these elder members of our family adapt to our “younger” and “hipper” (and far more delicious) brands of food and drink.

Here are some of my grandfather’s favs:

• Pabst Blue Ribbon*
• Budweiser*
• Wonder Bread (preferably toasted with bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo every day, for lunch)
• Kraft American Cheese Singles (do they even still make these?)
• Yetters Neapolitan Ice Cream (a home-town local brand, so I can’t speak badly on that one)
• Brach’s Circus Peanuts – it’s more the item, rather than the brand with this, so if you do eat these, definitely go with this brand!

*We finally got him to drink craft beer and some home-brew, but learned that he did indeed prefer Bud to Bass. Oh, well, judging by this year’s advance view of Super Bowl Ads, many millions must also still prefer Bud.

Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer, now that one we’d liked…but I do like the all natural flavors and old fashioned cane sugar blends that some of our friends make at Wild Bill’s Soda in NJ – pretty sure that he never tried their’s – but he would have liked it.

I do think that it is interesting that there are some brands like Hellman’s or Skippy Peanut Butter that we MUST have, but we can drop the processed white cheese in the wrapper.

Maybe it is the advances we make – like the first generation that went to college, or buying your first new home within a year from getting married. With these advances, there are sacrifices. We have to drop some of the things and the legacy brands that our family loved and couldn’t do without.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl