Travel with me back in time to 1954. You are a school kid, just home from class. The first thing you do? Make a pitcher of Kool-Aid. Boy, did we ever drink the Kool-Aid in those days.
The powder form of the sweet, fruit-based drink was invented in 1927, but it wasn’t until the 1950’s that Kool-Aid took off. General Foods bought the brand in 1953 and began advertising on TV. They introduced a character called Kool-Aid Man whose catch phrase was, “Oh, yeah.” You could sell ice to Eskimos if it was on TV in the 50’s. Kids, especially, were vulnerable to products when advertised by folks like The Lone Ranger, Gene Autry, Buffalo Bob or even the Kool-Aid Man.
Kool-Aid sold for a nickel a pack and originally came in Cherry, Grape, Lemon-Lime, Orange, Raspberry, and Strawberry flavors. Cherry, I believe, was the number seller, but we had to try them all. The cool thing about Kool-Aid is that kids could make it themselves. All you needed was a 2-quart pitcher of water, a packet of Kool-Aid and a cup of sugar. That’s right, an entire cup of sugar. It’s a wonder any of us have any teeth left. We ate and drank a lot of sugar.
Kool-Aid pops were also popular. Simply pour some Kool -Aid in an ice tray – yeah, we had ice trays in those days and they were the devil to operate. But we froze Kool-Aid, sometimes in just the trays with toothpicks as handles and did the best we could to eat them.
Until Kool-Aid, kids had two choices – milk or Cokes. A bottle of Coke was a whole nickel, plus deposit, but 2 quarts of Kool-Aid was only 5c, plus a little sugar, of course. A few years later, General Foods added Black Cherry, Tropical Punch, Lemonade, Pink Lemonade, Cherry, Watermelon, Orange, Summer Punch to their repertoire, and eventually offered Kool-Aid that didn’t need sugar. Moms loved that. They were tired of buying 10 pounds of granulated sugar each week.
But Kool-Aid eventually lost its pole position. Drinks like Capri Suns and other varieties hit the market. Today, you have to look long and hard in a grocery store to find Kool-Aid. It’s still there, but it costs more than a nickel.
Who cares? I think I’ll go make myself a pitcher of Black Cherry Kool Aid and see if Howdy Doody is on TV.