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Gadget Daddy: Say good-bye to your childhood. Cracker Jack prize replaced by video games

Lonnie Brown

Ledger columnist

Some years ago, Cracker Jack abandoned the tradition of including a small prize in each box. These days, kids get a small card that gives them access to an online video game arcade featuring knockoffs of classics such as Minesweeper and Space Invaders.

I was at a baseball game the other day when a thought occurred to me: "Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack!..."

There happened to be a bag of Cracker Jack handy. Of course there was. It's a ballgame. It had been years — probably decades — since I had them.

At least it was so long ago that they still came with a toy hidden among the caramel-coated popcorn.

Wikipedia tells us that the name Cracker Jack and the slogan "The More You Eat The More You Want" were both registered in 1896. In 1997, Cracker Jack became part of the Frito-Lay family, and remains so today.

The snack (sometimes called "the original junk food) is best noted for having a small prize in every box. It has been that way since 1912.

In 1914, the company started putting its baseball-card issues in the box. That was a result of what happened in 1907, when Cracker Jack and baseball were forever linked in a song still sung today during the seventh-inning stretch.

But mostly, the prizes were small, plastic figurines of dogs and horses; rings; stickers; temporary tattoos; whistles and booklets. Before World War II brought on a metal shortage, some toy prizes were metal, molded by the same company that made game pieces used in Monopoly.

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Some toys were designed by people who would later become famous. A 2016 issue of Country Roads magazine reported that among those were "C. Carey Cloud and John Craig, who created album covers for Rod Stewart and the Smashing Pumpkins."

Back to our bag of modern-day Cracker Jack. Alas, there is no toy prize inside any more. Instead, it has been replaced by a small piece of cardboard that's about half the size of a credit card. Peel it open, and there is a cartoon-like picture on the inside. Match that picture with one on the Cracker Jack website (www.crackerjack.com), and gain admission to the "Prize Inside Arcade." Welcome to the Internet of Everything, including surprise-prize replacement.

Yup. That is correct. Wave that part of your childhood memories bye-bye.

The change-over started taking place around 2013, when codes appeared in some boxes instead of prizes. The codes could be used to play games on smartphones. In 2016, the online games would replace prizes entirely.

To get in the "Prize Inside Arcade" website, users will need to enter a birthday that puts them over the age of 13. If you happen to be a member of the Baby Boomer generation who wants to see what has become of your beloved Cracker Jack prize, you'll be happy to know the wheel-system used for entering dates rolls back far enough to include you.

Once inside the website, kids use space bar, arrow keys or mouse to play knockoffs of Minesweeper, Space Invaders and other classics.

I can't say much beyond those two games. It's not because I got tired of them, but because I got sadly nostalgic about the whole direction of things, so I bailed out of the website.

It took about a hundred years, but they finally got rid of surprise toys, of one generation introducing another generation — and then another generation and then another — to a tradition nearly as old as baseball itself. Say what you will, but an internet-based game just doesn't compare with applying a temporary tattoo to one's 10-year-old self.

Like Meat Loaf sang some 45 years ago: "I know you're looking for a ruby in a mountain of rocks/ But there ain't no Coup de Ville/ Hiding at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box."

No plastic spinning top, either.

Lonnie Brown can be reached at LedgerDatabase@aol.com.