Scones, clotted cream and cut-out sugar cookies in the shapes of tiaras and engagement rings were on the menu at Kim Ifft's wedding breakfast in her Ben Avon home that drew 37 family members and neighbors, including 16 who slept over.
America's top cookie marks a big birthday
They called it an Oreo, which means small hill in Greek, because the prototype was somewhat rounded on top, perhaps. It was developed to compete with the Hydrox cookie, produced in 1908 by Sunshine Biscuits, and soon beat out the competition big time. It's 100 years old this month.
"Twist, Lick and Dunk" is the slogan for Oreos, with adults as well as children all over the world getting in on the eating fun. We've all done it, just as our parents and grandparents, our children and their children. The only way I was persuaded to drink milk as a child was with two Oreo cookies on the side.
And while many common household items of 100 years ago are all but obsolete — the typewriter, a wind-up watch, the egg-beater, a stick shift transmission, straight razors, the running board, a bicycle built for two, the Victrola, the ice pick, Ovaltine — our good old Oreo goes on and on.
The year 1912 was an eventful one, and not just because of the invention of America's favorite cookie. New Mexico and Arizona became states, and they'll be celebrating their centennials big time this year. Down in Savannah, Juliette Gordon Lowe called the first meeting of the Girl Scouts together, so they, too, will celebrate, and here's to their cookies.
