The Twinkie Saga Expands

Well, according to the info coming out of Irving from the Corporate Offices of Interstate Brands Corporation this morning, Twinkies are done and some 17,000 plus jobs are lost. One news reporter ask that, "if for some reason the unions had a change of heart and wanted to go back to work the closing of the 33 plants would not be needed"? The answer was rather hard-nosed  sprinkled with a dusting of non-humanness: No, it's to late. The deadline has passed [paraphrased]. Over the years, I have known men who have run large-scale operation from a General Mills Cheerio factory to the founder of Hickory Farms to Radio Station empires and not one of them came close to what I see coming out of corporations having problems today.  That could be one of the problems why the companies are in bankruptcy in the first place.
Years ago (being late 70's) CEO Roderick of US Steel said in an address that the ranks of middle management qualified to move into upper management and capable of running tomorrow's corporations were not being fulfilled. This was a major concern for him, for his company US Steel and Corporate America as a whole. As it has played out over several decades, Mr. Roderick was right on target!

The funny side of  all this is seeing on the local noon news, a reporter reporting from the very store where I went to get my Twinkies, yesterday. It's always reassuring to see you are ahead of the pack.Added to that.....someone on e-bay was offering Twinkies on e-bay for $100.00 a box. To bad my brain doesn't think in those lines or I would have wiped out the shelves yesterday and spent the entire night listing it all on e-bay.

I just had another Twinkies with a hot cup of coffee. Yum!

Tell me it ain't so!

Some corporate structure somewhere will sweep in and grab up the Twinkies brand. The remaining executives at Interstate Brands will sweep the profits of the sale into their golden parachute on the way out the door and live happily ever-after. The Twinkies will survive and all is well. Except the guy who has a $10.00 Twinkies and to afraid to eat it! Mine cost $0.20 and it taste just like it did when I was a kid. Besides, I have two more boxes that I could sell on e-bay when the prices hit $250 per box if someone is that big of a fool to let the brand die on the vine.

 

And The Caissons Go Rolling Along

My readers would never believe the connection that got me out to the National Cemetery today, but I'm gonna tell it like it happened anyway. As everyone has heard by now, Interstate Brands Corporation with their Corporate Office in Irving, Texas has said that they are shutting down their 31 bakeries because of labor more than their bankruptcy that they are currently in. That's the people who bake the famous Hostess Twinkie golden sponge cake.

While I haven't had a Twinkie in years I went on the web and discovered that while there are no bakeries here in Dallas, they do have two "day old" stores. One was in Hurst, the other in Oak Cliff. There wasn't much difference in miles to either one of the two stores , but there was a big difference in traffic to one over the other so I gave the cat a hug, told her to be good and I headed out the door. By the time I got to the store, I was a few miles shy of Cowboys Stadium but about half again the distance to the Dallas -Ft. Worth National Cemetery. I like going there in the spring and also like visiting in the fall. So, with a right hand turn and a left hand turn, it was a straight shot our Keist Blvd. past Reverend Jake's Potter House (Whitney Houston's Funeral Speaker) which is just a large block from the Dallas Baptist University Campus. This campus sits on a massive hill overlooking  Mountain Creek  Lake but the spectacular draw for me is the architecture of it's buildings, especially the church that has the massive steeple. If you have ever been to Old Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, the church up the hill from the market has one of those steeples. I wish I could find a place to park and just gaze upon the elements of the fantastic architecture. I did stop at the guard post house last spring and they said I could take pictures, just not from the grounds. Later, I ran into a retired professor who said to me, "who told you you couldn't take pictures?" He was rather disturbed to say the least, but I do understand to some degree---especially in today's society-- but the architecture is impressive and inspiring and I still want some shots from the grounds.

Almost got sidetracked-- but when you see those buildings....you need to make a turn onto Mountain Creek Parkway as the cemetery is adjacent to the university's property.

With a bag on the seat of the car full of Twinkie Boxes, here I am in between  several funerals. To me, it is an honour to be among those that fight for our freedom, even in death. Silently, from  one of the hill tops, I said a prayer for the fallen and their families.

Beauty and Honour

Looking toward the front gate, but the drive along the funeral route will leave your speachless.

Many times, I have written about how I end up coming up with an image. Never, have I been driven by a Hostess Twinkie Sponge Cake but as it turned out, I got my Twinkies and I got my shot, as unusual as it may be to have that kind of a driving force to end up in the National Cemetery. The death of a Twinkie Brand unnecessarily kind of runs parallel to an necessary death for a soldier.

Service Areas A-E  and Memorial Walk