Cheese Is In The Air

Posted by Nostalgiaholic | on February 12, 2008

It’s freakin neat how powerfully the senses of smell and taste are linked to nostalgia eh ? How many memories have you got that smell like cheese ?

I grew up in a rusty-grey little town in Ontario called Belleville.

Named by someone who either had a shaky grasp of the French language, or an acute sense of irony, the little Canadian burg is not the prettiest place in the world, but I love it to pieces. It hasn’t got a lot of landmarks to speak of, mainly just lots of hockey rinks and graveyards, but one place always sticks out in my mind. If you drive down South Front Street towards the Bay late at night, through the area of town formerly known as Foster Ward, roll down the window and breath in the night air… you might detect the pungent aroma of cheddar cheese.Hawkins Cheezies Bag

What the hell…?

Yeah, it turns out my home town was, and still is, the only producer of Hawkins Cheezies in the whole wide world. Way to go Belleville !!!

What…? You don’t know what Hawkins Cheezies are ? Well lets turn off Front Street and bomb down memory lane shall we ?

In the 1940s a couple ‘o wiseguys named W.T. Hawkins and Jim Marker from Chicago came to Tweed, Ontario with a dream. A dream to extrude lumps of cornmeal into funky shapes, bake ‘em and dust them with cheesey-loving. The resulting puffed snacks were like Cheetos, but with a yummier crunchy texture that made devouring a whole bag effortless, and messy. Tragedy struck our boys in 1956 when a fire gutted their factory, but no worries… they moved to Belleville shortly after and have been pumping out Canada’s favourite cheese snack ever since.

I can remember when I was a kid and my Dad explained what the Hawkins Factory was, and what went on inside. It sure didn’t look like Willy Wonka’s factory from the old Gene Wilder movie, but it sure did spew a little magic into the air. That magic was a potent combination of Cheese dust and baked shortening by-product that swept over the St. Paul St. area and all along the docks. I spent plenty of Thursday evenings at the Sea Cadet corps (it’s a Galway thing) inhaling lungfulls of cheddar-tinged night air. It’s become part of the Belleville landscape, as essential to the town’s character as the green, phosphorescent Bay of Quinte itself.

Oompa Loompa cheezies

I imagined this is what went on inside the factory… Oompa Loompa Doompadee Deezies…

If your in Canada, swipe a bag of Hawkins Cheezies and tuck in, or check out the Hawkins Cheezies Website for more info.

It’s freakin neat how powerfully the senses of smell and taste are linked to nostalgia eh ? How many memories have you got that smell like cheese ?

Much love…

Bookmark: Del.icio.usSpurlFurlSimpyBlinkDigg
RSS feed for comments on this post

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

Posted by Nostalgiaholic | Filed Under Food and Drink, Random Goodness  

One Response to “Cheese Is In The Air”

  1. AvatarJudy
    Mar 2nd, 2008
    at 7:20 am
    1

    Cheesies are addictive. THey are Nancy’s favourite snack. Thanks for the history. All good things come from Tweed! They should leave the factory open on Sea Cadet THursday night for potential patrons. Can you just se all those white caps migrating from the Sea Cadet Corps to the Cheesie factory for a snack. There goes the profit from the snack dispensor at the Corps!

    Reply to this comment.

Wax Nostalgic?

Stumble

Shwag