Thursday, November 12, 2020

Beer Nuts, an IGY era snack food

Recently I received another package that I would argue (but not too forcefully) is related to the IGY era. It was a shipment (shown below) of one of my favorite snacks, Beer Nuts. The Beer Nuts name was trademarked in 1953, and thence began the heyday of this sweet and salty beer accompanier. My friend and colleague Ann Steiner was excited to hear of my Beer Nuts jones, since she grew up as a neighbor of founder Russell Shirk in Bloomington, IL. I usually mail order a winter's supply of this hard-to-find sweet-and-salty pleasure around this time of year (they are too sticky during the heat of summer). 

Over the years I've owned a couple of Beer Nuts t-shirts. This photo with my sons Sam and Max was taken in Florida in December, 1987. Max and Sam have become much better golfers. I am still puttering around on the links.

To paraphrase one of our Supreme Court justices: I liked Beer Nuts. I still like Beer Nuts! One small part of the culture of the 1950s which survives until this day.

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