I'm trying to think why this was ever such a good thing. Luckily, I found an actual ad from 1969 (Wow, they've been around that long???). Here's the text: "Carefree. Progressive. New. That's the thinking behind the packaging of Kraft American Singles. Each slice individually wrapped for freshness and convenience in a wrapper that comes off neat." Ahhhh. There's that word I love: convenience. Because, you know, it's SO inconvenient to take cheese out of any other "group" package.
It's so hard to go to the deli counter and ask them to slice your cheese of choice. It's so hard to keep it in some container and just peel a slice off when you want it. It's so much more superior and progressive to put really seriously needless useless plastic into the environment. Please explain to me what part of this is carefree when we look at the state of things today?
It doesn't even taste better than the stuff from the deli. Neither does pre-packaged Jell-O, pudding, fruit, lunchmeat... shall I go on? IT DOESN'T TASTE BETTER. And it's barely real food.
I don't know how we stop it. We're so automatic at this point. Do I feel better that I figured out where it started?
Maybe a little.
As a life-long, Wisconsin born & raised "Cheesehead", I must comment. Kraft singles in this state are the "red-headed step-child" of cheese. Most people in this state buy them for use in sandwiches only (grilled cheese mostly) and I believe that has something to do with the price of real cheese and the shapes of block cheese being sold. Often times now, block cheese comes in these tiny "bricks", which makes them suitable for slicing for crackers and party platters and such....but horrible for sandwiches. The larger "blocks" proove capable of being sliced for sandwich size cheese, but once you have used 75% of the block it gets dicey trying to get the perfect slice. Me personally.....I blame lazy consumers for whom products like this are created in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could remember the name of this comedienne from Louisiana who tells a horrifying story about herself as a child closet eating an entire package of this cheese. It involves trying to hide the fact by flushing like 32 individual slices' wrappers down the toilet, and her mother having to call a plumber to snake the drain. If everyone could hear her tell this story, NO ONE would ever eat that cheese again-!
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