I’ve been in close contact with these for a long time. For as long as I can remember. The Cheez-It. They were a good and memorable part of my childhood.
Truthfully, I don’t remember us “kids” snacking much. It seems like most nights, dinner was the end of things, but I could be wrong. We always seemed to have a couple of tins of Charles Chips in our cupboard. I guess we had to have been snacking on them at some point. Same for the jar of popcorn kernels on the shelf right above.
But there on the very top shelf, out of the reach of small hands, were a box of Mr. Salty Pretzel sticks and the coveted golden box of Cheez-Its. These were my Dad’s snacks. At the latest end of the day, when all was said and done, Dad would sit in his recliner, a matching version of Mom’s recliner. He’d have one drink, mostly a glass of red wine. And there beside him on the floor was his box of treats. One or the other — the Mr. Salty’s or the Cheez-Its. He picked out one piece at a time, eating it slowly and deliberately, as he worked on solving the daily crossword puzzle from the Dayton Daily News.
Yes, I’ve mentioned I was born in Dayton, Ohio. And. Low and Behold. So was the Cheez-It. In fact, that iconic orange cracker turned 100 years old in 2021.
We have to visit the historic Edgemont neighborhood in Dayton, which is located right along the Great Miami River, two miles south of downtown. In its day, it was a mecca of industry, back to a time when Dayton was hailed “The City of A Thousand Factories.” Quite coincidentally, it was located inside a foregone factory on the corner of Concord and Cincinnati Streets, just three blocks from the street where my mother was born.
The place was called Green & Green cracker company. They made all sorts of different things — from graham crackers to gingersnaps. But the Green & Green snack that would revolutionize snack time was the one and only Cheez-It. On May 23, 1921, they decided to trademark that cheesy, flaky cracker and its unique name — the Cheez-It.
It started early on. In 1841, a man named Dr. William W. Wolf moved to Dayton to practice homeopathy. He believed in the healing power of food. He came up with something called the Wolf Cracker. It was a hard-butter cracker snack made for medicinal purposes. He became known as Dayton’s “Cracker King.” Those buttery crackers were popular. So he launched the Wolf Cracker Bakery to churn out these crunchy wonders.
Fast forward to the 1870s. Two Dayton natives were living on the barren plains of North Dakota. They were father and son, J.W. and Weston Green, and often longed for a taste of home. So they would send home for those necessities that they could not find in North Dakota. And always, they would order a good supply of the Wolf Cracker.
The men never forgot those crackers. So, when Wolf died in 1897, they purchased the Wolf Bakery Company. They renamed it the Green & Green Company. They kept Wolf’s recipe in tact and rebranded the doctor’s famous treat as the “Dayton Cracker.”
They expanded over the years. Finally, bringing us the Cheez-It. A little-known gem of The Gem City. By the way. There is no proven reason for naming Dayton with this “Gem City” term, as it has no diamonds or emeralds. I’m saying the Cheez-It is the cause.
Rest easy about my childhood Cheez-Its. If we put on our big, sad eyes, Dad would always share. And that still makes me happy, saying “cheese” as I smile.
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“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer
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“A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect.”
― Jonathan Lockwood Huie
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“How good life is when one does something good and just!”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
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