Everyone has a certain object that reminds them of their best friend, a family member, or someone else important in their life. For me, my object (which also happens to be food) is a Ding Dong. When I hear about Ding Dongs or see them at a grocery store I always think of my grandpa. Ding Dongs are a major classic when it comes to the millions of different Hostess options. What’s so special about Ding Dongs? Ding Dongs are basically a cupcake with the frosting in the middle instead of on top and a hard chocolate shell-like consistency around the whole thing. What’s not to like about them?

My siblings and I used to stay at my grandparents house a lot when we were younger. When we were at their house it was like a mini vacation. They had a pool and lived on a golf course which meant golf cart rides whenever we wanted. But one of the best things about going to my grandparents house is what we got to eat. My mom has always been a healthy freak or an “almond mom” which is the new saying for healthy moms that don’t eat much. Everytime my mom would take me and my sister to the grocery store we would always pick out the most sugary cereals and food in general. My mom has this rule that if it was below 10 sugars we could get it. Most of the time it wasn’t. When we stayed with my grandparents, the 10 sugars rule was no longer in effect.

Every morning my grandpa would eat a Ding Dong for breakfast when my siblings and I would stay there. He always offered them to us and most of the time we would take that offer. My mom would never let us eat Ding Dongs for breakfast so we took every chance we could get to eat something that sweet for breakfast. To make the Ding Dongs 10 times better, they were also refrigerated. Normal Ding Dongs are already good but when they are refrigerated, they are so much better.

My family and aunts and uncles also know about the Ding Dong addiction my grandpa has. There was one time that my grandparents had all of the family over during Christmas time and my grandma made a huge breakfast for all of us. My grandpa still walked over to the fridge and ate his Ding Dong for breakfast instead. There was another time that my family and my grandparents went to Aruba together. My mom does the mobile pickup at the grocery store there and she put Ding Dongs on the grocery list. Unfortunately, the Aruba store did not have any Ding Dongs so my grandpa went to Dunkin Donuts every morning instead.

Everytime I would look in the refrigerator at my grandparents house there would be at least 3 boxes of Ding Dongs and 2 boxes of Oatmeal Cream Pies just in case the Ding Dongs ran out before the next grocery trip. My brother, when he was younger, used to wake up very early. My grandpa also happened to wake up early every morning. Since my brother and grandpa would always wake up the earliest my grandpa would mostly share his Ding Dongs with my brother. When me and my sister were younger, we never heard the end of it. My brother would brag all the time about how he got to eat Ding Dongs for breakfast because he woke up before my grandma could make anything else.

Who would have thought that a Hostess Ding Dong would have that much meaning to not only me, but my whole family. This shows that the tiniest and most random objects can have a way deeper meaning than they may look.