Today in 1921, Green and Green cracker company of Dayton, Ohio trademarked the name of a new product that is still doing quite well.
In other words, it’s the birthday of the Cheez-It.
A lot of companies around the turn of the century promoted crackers as simple, wholesome, healthy food, good for feeding our physical appetites and suppressing our, um, unhealthy ones.
J.W. Green and his son, Weston, bought a Dayton cracker company in 1897 and began expanding the operation throughout southwest Ohio.
The company spent World War I producing something called Hard Bread, which was about as enjoyable as the name suggests (though certainly necessary for the war effort).
Before that, they had been best known for the Dayton Cracker, a hard butter cracker.
But in the 1920s, they wanted to branch out, so they came up with a recipe that was like a cracker version of rarebit, toast with a melted cheese sauce on top.
The “baked rarebit” with real cheese inside became known as the Cheez-It.
A century later, well, those little crunchy rectangles are all over the place.
Note that I didn’t say little crunchy squares.
Apparently Cheez-Its are 26 millimeters by 24 millimeters.
Not that most people are going to stop eating them and start measuring them.
Today in Pennsylvania, it’s 143 Day, celebrating the one and only Mister Rogers!
The children’s television pioneer from Latrobe, Pennsylvania thought the number 143 was special, because it matched the number of letters in the words “I love you.”
He even maintained his weight at 143 pounds, and May 23 is usually the 143rd day of the year, making it a perfect time to celebrate Fred.
Were Cheez-Its really invented in Dayton? Yes, and here’s the story (Dayton.com)
143 Day in PA in honor of Fred Rogers (Philly Voice)
