Cloudy / 48° F
Seven-ounce sodas quenched our thirst [UPDATED]
Published 7:49am Monday, June 11, 2012 Updated 11:51am Monday, June 11, 2012The debate about soda size in New York City is, at the very least, deserving of discussions about the health of the average American.
Many of us look back fondly on the days when, as kids, we could purchase seven ounces of bottled pop at neighborhood corner grocery stores. On a hot summer day, this sure quenched our thirst.
The only size soda that McDonalds offered in the 1950s was seven ounces, versus 12 ounces today for their small size and 32 ounces for the large-size container.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says the average restaurant meal is four times larger today than it was in the 1950s. The average American is 26 pounds heavier than in 1950.
The only burger on the McDonalds menu in the 1950s was what is now considered their small hamburger that has a 1.6-ounce beef patty and is mostly sold to children as part of a Happy Meal.
The quarter pounder, which today is the starting size for many fast food burgers, did not appear on the McDonald’s menu until 1972.
In the 1950s the only size of French fries McDonalds offered was what is now the small size.
In 1955 a hamburger at McDonalds cost 15 cents.
In today’s dollars that same burger would be about $1.27. The French fries were 10 cents or 85 cents in today’s dollars.
When we dine at restaurants, especially at a chain or fast food restaurant, the CDC recommends splitting a meal with a companion, taking half home or ordering the smallest size entrée that’s available on the menu.
They also encourage patrons to ask restaurant managers to provide smaller portions.
I am among the first to admit this is easier said than done.
A final piece of advice from the CDC that we all should heed: don’t forget about regular helpings of fruits and vegetables. And have a snack, between meals that consists of fruit.
• • •
Radio fans of Dark Star (birth name of George Chapple) mourned the former WCCO-Radio talk show host’s passing on Friday, June 1. Star, a Vietnam veteran, was one of a kind. He was his own person, similar to former Fergus Falls radio announcer Oats LeGrand.
Another of my WCCO-Radio favorites was the late Steve Cannon who spent the bulk of his career hosting a drive-time talk show from 3 to 6 p.m. His show was called the “Cannon Mess,” coordinated from the basement studio in downtown Minneapolis.
Cannon had a regular cast of voiced characters known as his “Lil Cannons” that included Ma Linger, Backlash Larue and Morgan Mundane.
They provided some comedy as well as commentary on the topics of the day. Cannon spent 26 years on the radio at WCCO before he retired in 1997. He died in 2009, at the age of 81.
Another radio personality who I will never forget is the late Brian Lokken of Lakes Radio. We covered the police and sheriff’s beats many times together, before his passing in January 2011.
I’ll remember the smile, sense of humor and Brian’s professionalism as a radio communicator in Otter Tail County.
Star, LeGrand, Cannon, Lokken and many others felt more like family members than radio personalities. I know that many others in Otter Tail County feel the same way about them as I do.
Tom Hintgen is a retired Journal reporter living in Fergus Falls.
