Oscar Mayer Sr. in 1873 at the age of 14 answered an ad for George Weber's retail meat market in Detroit Michigan. New to the United States he landed his first job with eagerness he strived to learn the business and continued on his journey working for Kohlhammer's market in Chicago followed by working with Armour & Co for six years in the stockyards, by early 1900 Oscar Mayer and his brother started to take Chicago by storm in 1904 there was a concern about others stealing there name so they were one of the first packers to brand their products. The Mayers were also one of the first to have their brands federally approved and were also one of the first who volunteered the products to the Food Safety Inspection Service. By 1924 they introduced the first packaged bacon in which they also recieved the first patent. Oscar Mayer is born, by 1929 the company began to place little yellow bands around the weiners seperating them from others and so began the household name of Oscar Mayer.

Watching the commercials on televison the other day an Oscar Mayer commercial appeared, a flood of memories came rushing back and it was then that I realized if it were not for Oscar Mayer I as a child may not have learned at such a young age how to spell some of the words that flashed across our television screen in the late 70's and early 80's. Who created these mystical little jingles that have been placed forever in our memories of years past? Was it Oscar G. Mayer himself? Realizing that the founder past away at 95 a warm fuzzy feeling embraced me and I hope that if he is looking down although there are millions of us in this world, I just wanted to say " Thank You" to Kraft Foods and Oscar Mayer for teaching so many of us how to spell a basic word or words such as B-O-L-O-G-N-A , do they realize what they have truly done? How many of your friends used to skip down the street and sing this jingle?

“ My bologna has a first name, its O-S-C-A-R , my bologna has a second name its M-A-Y-E-R , oh I love to eat it everyday and if they ask me why, I’ll sayyyyyyy cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A. I cannot tell you how many times it was written on a notebook pad when we were young and mom used to make fried bologna or we would eat it with melted cheese for lunch. Just because of a little jingle our home contains many Kraft Foods products including the hot dogs. Remember this other jingle?

“ Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener,that is what I truly want to be, if I were an Oscar Mayer wiener everyone would be in love with me." Why in the world would millions of munchkins in the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s want to be a wiener? I have not quite figured that one out but I do have to say that due to that song Oscar Meyer once again is frozen in our freezer ready to be eaten when a wiener is needed. Isn't it wonderful that we could preserve these memories and are able to reflect back when we are a child jumping rope and playing hopscotch? Life was certainly simple we did not have cell phones to tie our families down, or MP3 players to listen to our latest music. We would go grocery shopping and certainly be on our best behavior knowing that if we acted out in public there was something lingering when we got home. Where are those jingles from years ago? I hope that Kraft can pull them out of the archives and place them back on television I believe by doing this they can recapture what the real meaning of Oscar Mayer was and I can almost bet that there sales would rise just because there are millions of us who have a very fond memory of yesterday.

Oscar G. Mayer thank you for teaching us and giving us great memories, thank you for all of the great foods that your company offers and for taking us back to a simpler lifestyle for just a little while.

" My baloney has a first name its O-s-c-a-r my baloney has a second name its M-a-y-e-r , oh I love to eat it everyday and if you ask me why I'll sayyyyyyyy cuz Oscar Mayer has a way with B-o-l-o-g-n-a, he certainly did , didn't he?

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