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Frosted or Plain?

2007-05-13

Good morning Boys and Girls.

The Saturday before last, I dropped a friend at the airport and did a little regular work and then I was scheduled to work on a boat for the son-in-law of a regular customer.

Everything went smoothly and I arrived at my customer's place around two o'clock. The plan was for me to follow him, Ed, to his daughter's home as soon as he closed up. He was waiting for one of his customers at the time and asked if I minded waiting a few minutes.

We gabbed a bit and I asked him about one of the photographs I'd noticed a few times to the side of his desk. It was just a black and white print of a guy holding a box of donuts or something.

The story made me realize that someone invents everything, even if they're pretty silly things, or cause cavities!

The picture is of Ed's second cousin from a few decades earlier, and he informed me that I'd probably met him a time or two, and when he described him, I realized I had, because he hangs out with Ed's Dad who stops by all the time. I just didn't know his claim to fame. Well, fame is going a little far.

One of the main Keebler plants had for years been just around the corner from Ed's place. The building is still there, with its giant Elf logo emblazoned on the painted red block. This cousin, who from the looks of him must be around seventy now, worked in research and development during the sixties and seventies and was the guy, for better or worse, who invented "Pop Tarts."

"He didn't get super rich for inventing them, since he was an employee, but he did all right. For about ten or fifteen years - I forget how long the deal was they worked out - but for whatever period of time it was, every time someone ate a Pop Tart, he received some tiny fraction of a penny. By the time he retired, he was very well off."

The picture was from during the time period when they were working out the packaging for the new product.

"We were over at his place last weekend," Ed said. "Pretty neat house. We call it the Pop Tart Palace."

Ed's a funny guy.


Be good to everyone.

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Doe (2007-05-14)
Frosted! :)

Barnabus (2007-05-13)
Guess he made the company a lot of money too!! It's too bad that he don't get lifetime benefits, but since he's well off, it probably don't mattter! Maybe I'll do a post on regrets about inventions that worked too well.

figjam (2007-05-13)
Good story for Mother's Day. That guy made morning a lot easier for a lot of moms... including this one.

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