A Sole-ful Inspiration

     Undoubtedly, Twinkies are one of the most famous snack foods in the country.  A moist little sponge cake filled with creamy vanilla filling has a cult following that spans the globe.


     It was during the Great Depression that Jimmy Dewar, a manager for the Continental Baking Company in Chicago pondered a way to extend the use of their strawberry short Cake finger baking pans beyond the brief strawberry season.  He was on a business trip to St. Louis when he looked up and saw a billboard advertising Twinkle Toe Shoes.  At the same time he came up with the idea to inject those little cakes with a banana creme filling.  He named them Twinkies, after the shoes in the advertisement and went on to eat 3 of them each and every day for the rest of his life.  He lived  to be 88 years old.  The original banana cream filling was replaced by the current vanilla flavor in the 1940s when during the Second World War bananas were rationed.

     Twinkies earned national fame and prominence as they became the sponsor of the children's program, The Howdy Doody Show.  Along with other characters such as Phineas T. Bluster and Dilly Dally there was a cowhand aptly named Twinkie the Kid.  Twinkies achieved later notoriety when on the popular comedy All in the Family Archie insisted that Edith pack Twinkies in his lunch pail every day.