7 Discontinued Foods Only People Born Before 1970 Will Remember
Some foods disappear so completely that only a certain generation can vouch they ever existed. Mention them to anyone under 50 and you’ll get a puzzled look, followed by “Are you sure you didn’t make that up?” But if you were born before 1970, you probably remember eating them, begging for them at the store or trading for them at school.
These foods were part of everyday life in the 1960s and 1970s, sold in grocery stores, candy shops and lunchrooms across America. Some were pulled because of new rules, some because sales slipped and some simply because tastes changed. Here are seven discontinued foods that only people born before 1970 will truly remember.
1. Fizzies
Fizzies were tablets that turned a glass of water into a fizzy, fruit-flavored drink in seconds. Kids dropped them into water and watched them bubble like a science experiment. Flavors included grape, cherry and root beer, and they were a hit in the late 1950s and 1960s.
Fizzies were sweetened with cyclamate, an artificial sweetener the federal government banned from foods and drinks in 1969. Fizzies were taken off the market as a result. The brand has been revived in later years with different sweeteners, but for many boomers, the original fizz is a memory from a different era.
2. Funny Face Drink Mix
Pillsbury launched Funny Face drink mix in the 1960s as a rival to Kool-Aid. Each flavor had a cartoon face on the packet, and the names were meant to make kids laugh, like Goofy Grape and Choo-Choo Cherry. Unlike Kool-Aid at the time, Funny Face came presweetened, so kids didn’t need to add sugar.
The early packets also used cyclamate, so Pillsbury had to change the formula after the 1969 ban. Funny Face stayed on shelves through the 1970s but eventually faded away, and Pillsbury stopped making it. The packets, cups and pitchers are now popular collectibles.
3. Space Food Sticks
Space Food Sticks were chewy, energy-packed sticks sold by Pillsbury starting around 1970, when the space race had the whole country excited. They came in flavors like chocolate, peanut butter and caramel and were marketed as the kind of snack astronauts would eat.
General Mills, which later bought Pillsbury, tells the story of the snack in its Space Food Sticks history. The sticks were eventually dropped in the U.S. as the space craze cooled. Kids of the late 1960s and 1970s still remember feeling like astronauts while eating them.
4. The Marathon Bar
The Marathon candy bar was a long, braided rope of chewy caramel covered in milk chocolate. It was introduced by Mars in 1973 and came with a ruler printed on the wrapper to show just how long it was. Kids loved that it took forever to eat.
Mars discontinued the Marathon bar in the early 1980s. A similar bar later appeared under a different name, but fans insist it was never quite the same. The Marathon bar has become a symbol of 1970s candy nostalgia.
5. Bonomo Turkish Taffy
Bonomo Turkish Taffy was a flat, hard bar of taffy that you had to smack against a table to break into pieces. Kids loved the ritual as much as the candy. It came in vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and banana flavors, and it was a favorite at candy counters for decades.
The candy was discontinued around 1980 after changes in ownership. It was revived in 2010 by a new company, but many of the people who grew up with it say nothing compares to the original. Smacking the bar on a table is a memory many boomers share.
6. Jell-O 1-2-3
Jell-O 1-2-3 was a dessert mix that separated into three layers as it chilled. You mixed it, poured it into glasses and waited. When it set, it had a creamy top, a fluffy middle and a clear gelatin layer on the bottom. Kids thought it was magic.
It was introduced around 1970 and stayed on shelves for years before being discontinued. Fans still talk about it online and ask Jell-O to bring it back. For many, it was the fanciest dessert their mothers made on a weeknight.
7. Tab
Tab was Coca-Cola’s first diet soda, launched in 1963. It was sold in a distinctive pink can and was especially popular with women who were watching their weight. For years, Tab was the diet drink of choice, and its loyal fans stuck with it even after Diet Coke arrived in 1982.
Coca-Cola finally discontinued Tab in 2020 as part of a plan to cut slower-selling brands, as ABC7 reported at the time. Longtime fans were crushed. For many women who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, a can of Tab is a powerful memory.
A Different Kind of Grocery Store
Part of what makes these foods so memorable is the world they came from. In the 1960s, grocery stores were smaller, with fewer brands and far fewer choices than today. A new product was a big deal, and companies advertised it heavily on Saturday morning cartoons and in magazines. Kids knew every jingle and begged for the newest thing they saw on TV.
Many of these products were built around a gimmick, whether it was fizzing tablets, space-age packaging or a dessert that separated into layers by itself. Food companies were eager to show off what modern science could do, and families were eager to try it. It was an era when “new and improved” really did sell.
Today’s shoppers have thousands more products to choose from, and new items come and go constantly. That makes it harder for any one food to become a shared memory for a whole generation, which is one reason these older foods still spark so much excitement when people talk about them.
Why These Foods Disappeared
Some of these foods were pulled because of government action, like the 1969 ban on cyclamate, which forced companies to reformulate or drop products. Others faded because tastes changed or because companies merged and trimmed their product lines. The FDA’s history of its regulatory powers shows how food rules have changed over the decades.
Whatever the reason, these foods live on in memories, online fan groups and collections of vintage packaging. Which of these do you remember, and which one would you buy today if it came back?
