Wait, what? Bikinis and Graham crackers? Is that what we’re supposed to wear while eating graham crackers? No, but it’s Wicked Wednesday and it’s summer, so we thought we’d feature whichever National Days the date falls on. July 5–and I’m sure you ALL knew this–is both National Bikini Day and National Graham Cracker Day.
A little background on each, straight from wikipedia: “The Graham Cracker was inspired by the preaching of Sylvester Graham, who was a part of and strongly influenced by the 19th century temperance movement; Graham believed that a vegetarian diet anchored by home-made whole grain bread, made from wheat coarsely ground at home, as part of a lifestyle that involved minimizing pleasure and stimulation of all kinds, was how God intended people to live and that following this natural law would keep people healthy.”
“A bikini is usually a women’s abbreviated two-piece swimsuit with a bra top for the
chest and underwear cut below the navel…. The name for the bikini design was coined in 1946 by Parisian engineer Louis Réard, the designer of the bikini. He named the swimsuit after Bikini Atoll, where testing on the atomic bomb was taking place.”
So fess up, Wickeds – tell us about your first bikini. Extra points if you include a picture of yourself in it. And are you a fan of Graham crackers or never touch the stuff?
Liz: I don’t remember my very first bikini! But I did have an awesome purple polka dot one that I only recently gave up. Which just means I have to go shopping for a new one! As for graham crackers, I like them – but going gluten free meant giving them up. Until I found a really great gluten free version. I love them with peanut butter.
Edith: they are SO good with PB. And as a vehicle for cheesecake…
Barb: I’m not sure I every wore anything that truly qualified as a bikini. I had an excellent green two piece in high school, but I think the bottoms were a little too covery for it to be called a bikini. Since then, nothing even close. I blame it on my love of graham crackers.
Sherry: Ha, Barb! I remember my first bikini! I was in tenth grade and my mom took me shopping for it — she wanted to approve. It was a sky blue with something white on it — maybe palm trees. And hello, Smores! How can none of you mentioned their ooey-gooey goodness?!
Barb: Ha! Sherry, you would be the one to mention the treat with the marshmallow in it.
Edith: I had a red bikini in ninth grade, the year I outgrew my baby fat and hadn’t yet gained any of my adult poundage. But my favorite was the pink cotton one I sewed when I was sixteen, with eyelet lace at the top of the top. Wore it to the beach for the day with Tibor Derencsenyi, my boyfriend (a gorgeous Hungarian senior at my school), and at sunset he asked me to the prom. At the time I felt like we were getting engaged. Too bad he broke up with me right after he graduated. Graham crackers? Bring ’em on – regular, chocolate, cinnamon, I love them all.
Julie: When I was about fourteen my mother sewed me a bikini. I wore it twice. My first and only. Sadly, my confidence in bikini wearing was never strong. As for graham crackers–love them. LOVE s’mores, love graham cracker crusts, love them with tea. I’m actually pretty fussy about my graham crackers. Honey Maid or bust.
Readers: Dish on your bikini (or guys, the one you most appreciated seeing…) and your opinion of graham crackers.
This is a fun topic set! I like my graham crackers with real butter on them. When I was a girl I loved them with peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. Do they still have that? The white kind in a jar? As for a first bikini, it really wasn’t. Not being much of a girly girl, it was more like shorts and a top made with thick stretchy material that looked like denim. The top was striped. My favorite thing to wear swimming, though, was cutoffs and a tee.
They still have Marshmallow Fluff!
Yea!
Sherry’s protagonist Sarah Winston is always eating fluffernutter sandwiches, Reine!
Sherry & Edith —
My apologies to Sarah Winston and Sherry! When I was a kid we just called them peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches. I guess it didn’t click for some reason. My mother used to melt a large marshmallow onto a graham cracker with no chocolate. I loved those. But a campfire with the Girl Scouts usually meant seeing how many layers of burnt marshmallow we could pull off one firey black marshmallow.
We did that, too!
I wonder when they started calling them fluffernutters? I never heard of them until we moved to Massachusetts!
Sometime when I was a kid, there was a TV commercial that pushed the idea of a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich and called it a fluffernutter. That was the first I heard it called that. No one I knew called it that. You used to see tons of jars of marshmallow fluff on the supermarket shelves. It was very popular in the fifties, but not so much in the sixties. I think the company was trying to revive the popularity with the fluffernutter campaign. My mother liked sending me to school with the sandwich, because it wasn’t dangerous to leave in your or the cloak room, nothing to go bad and make you sick. I took it the first day of first grade with my friend Stephen. Then we saw the hot lunch trays and tossed the sandwiches to buy the hot lunch with our ice cream money. We ate much better at school than at home.
The most bikini-ish one was a metallic gold number. Loved it. Now being both bikini and gluten free, I’m most interested in the brand name of Liz’s gluten free graham crackers. Grahams with peanut butter is the best midnight snack.
Metallic gold, wow!
I think I see a possible book title in this blog post title!! I do remember my navy blue and white bikini that I had when I was very little. And also when I was little, a favorite snack was graham crackers with leftover frosting! Chocolate, of course!
Sounds like a cookie recipe!
I’ve had two piece bathing suits, but I don’t think any of them qualified as a bikini. Nowadays, I don’t wear bathing suits, let alone bikinis. Love graham crackers — with butter, with chocolate frosting, as s’mores. When I was a kid, my mom would break up graham crackers and pour milk over the pieces. We’d eat that like cereal.
Probably not any sweeter than some commercial cereals!
We did that, too! I still like it.
There is (or was) a restaurant/bakery in Northampton MA housed in the building where Sylvester Graham lived while inventing his famous cracker. It’s called Sylvester’s.
The closest to a bikini I ever came was a cute Villager two-piece suit, my senior year in high school–it was pink and white, with ruffles. I got a wicked sunburn the first time I wore it.
I remember well the first time exposing skin that had never been exposed before.
I’m not a fan of bikinis (at least not on me) — and my favorite way to eat graham crackers is in the smores frappucino from Starbucks!
Really? They put graham crackers in a drink?
Don’t worry, I don’t wear bikinis any more, either.
My favorite way of eating graham crackers is in piecrust!
Did you see the bikini patterns from the late 1960’s I posted on Facebook over the weekend? They were really modest, more like two-piece suits, but they were my first tiny bathing suits. Made of woven fabric, too, which was not nearly as comfortable as the lycra stretch kind we have today.
I know! The pink one I sewed was unstretchable cotton.
My first bikini…. I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Don’t know that I could name a favorite or not.
I find it very funny that the graham cracker was invented to be a simple, pure way of eating, but we all associate it with treats and even by themselves they taste so good. I don’t think the modern graham cracker owes much to the intentions behind making it.
You are correct, Mark. Graham flour was supposed to be healthy. Doubt the recipe included anywhere near as much sugar as is used now, if any.
Though my bikini days have long passed, I do remember fondly a bright orange and yellow geometric patterned one covered with organza ruffles 🙂 As for graham crackers, great treat with peanut butter and a little extra honey…..maybe this is why I don’t wear bikinis anymore 🙂
{snort} Organza ruffles, oh my!
I remember tucking my two piece to make it bikini-ish when I was in college. Medications dictate I stay out of the sun these days (and if I WERE to go swimming, my preference would be sans suit). As for graham crackers, I prefer them as the base for cheesecake.
Yes, I remember wanting a two-piece to be skimpier. There’s nothing like swimming in the wherewithall, is there?
I never felt I could really wear a true bikini, but I had a really nice cotton plaid two piece I loved and looked pretty good in (still have the one and only pic of me in it). I love skinny dipping, too, but spare the sight from anyone but my darling hubby (who loves me no matter what!)
I’ve always loved graham crackers, dunked in milk, dunked in coffee, covered with chocolate, as a pie crust, and, of course, as part of s’mores. Bring ’em on!
I agree about all those ways to enjoy grahams, Ginny!
I had two piece swim suits growing up but never a bikini. I was way to shy to wear one. I love graham crackers–especially with peanut butter. I also like the chocolate ones and the cinnamon ones.
They are great in all flavors, Christi.
I bought a bikini for the first time last year for my cousin’s destination wedding in Cancun. It’s a bit of a cheat, since it has a red bikini top but navy blue and white polka high-waisted bottoms that cover my belly button.
When I was a kid, I loved those pre-made peanut butter and jelly graham cracker sandwiches that my school would give out as snacks on field trips. Nowadays, graham crackers are strictly for s’mores and cheesecake/pie crusts.