Growing up, these were a huge treat for me. That frosting you could peel off and eat separately, the chocolate cake, the creamy middle. Excellent with milk.

I was lucky that they came in packs of two. If they had been sold singly, it is entirely possible that my mother would not have shared.

When I was very small, we lived in California and I almost never got these. Instead it was a parade of Mother’s Cookies—Chocolate Chip, Circus Animals, and Flaky Flix. (I will sign every petition I see to bring back that last one!)

Then we moved to Illinois and the cookies shifted to almost exclusively Nabisco. Chips Ahoy. Gingersnaps. Rarely, Oreos.

But across the river, in Davenport (or maybe Bettendorf?), there was a Wonder Hostess outlet. I guess those are all gone now, and it’s a shame, because that place was magical. Cartons of Twinkies stacked to the ceiling. Ten doughnuts for a dollar.

And the smell. Oh. My. God. It was carb paradise and smelled like heaven. You’ve probably heard women say they can gain 10 pounds looking at a cake? Yeah, inhaling the aromas at this place for a few minutes would break the scale. But so, so worth it.

Of course, we were there for “grownup” food. Sandwich bread. Dinner rolls. Things that you eat in measured doses and that stretch the budget.

But even my mom—who probably preferred Dolly Madison—couldn’t contain her drool entirely, and with a nod to the gods of sugar, she would give in to a moment of weakness and would buy one two-pack of cupcakes. I got one, she got one. Sometimes she made me wait til we were home to eat it. Sometimes we didn’t make it out of the parking lot.

It’s odd, I don’t think she ever got my dad anything, I guess because he wasn’t along on the outing. I know he liked Twinkies. I suspect given his druthers, he would have been a Fruit Pie guy. But I can’t say for sure.

It is probably nostalgia, but I think these treats are not as good today as they were in my youth. I can’t say for sure, but the taste seems different. I am positive that they are smaller. And I know these things are supposed to be able to survive nuclear holocaust, but they actually are better before their expiration date and when they haven’t suffered climate issues. You need to be mindful of what you pick up in the convenience store. The little white scroll on the cupcakes turns a sickly shade of beige and starts to look really unappetizing after sitting on the shelf a while. Twinkies dry out. I can’t speak to SnoBalls. I’m anti-coconut. But I suspect they have their issues, too.

And yet—I’ll still peel off that frosting and enjoy the bejeezus out of them. And I’m rich now, so I’ll even buy enough that everyone can have their own full serving!