Come one, come all

The circus barker steps out from the closed tent and in front of the crowd of townsfolk. In his best over the top barker voice, he yells out, “Step right up, step right up, step right up, ladies and gentlemen, be prepared to be thrilled and amazed, enlightened and astonished, we have a wild and wonderful array of attractions for you tonight. Oh yes, oh yes, we have thrilling rides and wild games, there’s something here for everyone! Come one, come all to the Greatest Show on Earth.”

I can still hear the barker in my head. A small mom and pop circus had come to my little town. To me, though, it looked huge. I couldn’t wait to see what was coming next. The extravaganza came back to me when I went to the grocery store and found my first bag of Barnum’s Animal Crackers in decades. Instead of a little box, they came in a plastic bag full of little zebras, elephants, lions, giraffes, and gorillas. 

Nabisco began producing the treats in 1902, naming them after the famed showman P.T. Barnum, who exhibited the exotic animals in menageries that accompanied his circuses. The crackers’ colorful box, which looked like a circus car filled with animals, came with a string on top and was originally intended to serve as a Christmas ornament once the crackers inside were gobbled up.

Nabisco repackaged the crackers six years ago, removing the animals from their cages, picturing them instead roaming around in the grass. The company produces all of the animal crackers at their Fair Lawn, New Jersey, bakery and sells more than 40 million packages each year in the United States and to 17 countries worldwide.

When I was a kid, I gobbled the crackers up as fast as I could. I loved the sweet, but not super sweet snack. I wanted to run away with the circus or carnival, thinking that if I did than I could have them anytime I wanted.

When I opened the bag now, the crackers were a smaller than I remembered. The animals had strunk. Besides letting them out of their cages, I thought maybe Nabisco had put the animals on a fad diet of low carbs and Slimfast and a Back to Boot Camp killer exercise routine. Despite the changes, I was still able to pull the animals out of the bag two by two, just like the animals that boarded Noah’s Ark.

Of course, for the test that mattered the most, they tasted just like I remembered. And hey, a small 1 ounce bag was a mere 120 calories. I’m sure I wouldn’t want them every day, but they were still a treat.

(Of course, I tried a generic brand simple titled Animal Crackers and, yea, that bag tasted as bland as they looked. I did notice another bag that had icing on them. Oh, the power of a little creativity.) In any event, come one, come all, step right up and enjoy the circus. Who doesn’t love a parade of animal crackers!