Celebrating Animal Crackers

Animal crackers in my soup

Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop

Gosh oh gee but I have fun

Swallowing animals one by one

In every bowl of soup I see

Lions and Tigers watching me

I make 'em jump right through a hoop

Those animal crackers in my soup

When I get hold of the big bad wolf

I just push him under to drown

Then I bite him in a million bits

And I gobble him right down

When their inside me where it's dark

I walk around like Noahs Arc

I stuff my tummy like a goop

With animal crackers in my soup

Animal crackers in my soup

Do funny things to me

They make me think my neighborhood

Is a big menagerie

For instance there's our Janitor

His name is Mr. Klein

And when he Hollers at us kids

He reminds me of a Lion

By Diane Forrest

I love watching Shirley Temple movies, and the above is a song she sang in one of them, you can watch it by clicking here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= cntYIkuthYg

I have always loved animal crackers.  I liked having my own little box of cookies and carrying it around like a purse.  It always made me feel special.  Animal crackers first went on sale as "Barnum’s Animals" in 1902 and came in a circus train-themed box with a string, so you could hang them on the Christmas tree. They cost only 5 cents a box.  However, according to punchbowl.com, animal-shaped crackers were first brought to the United States during the late 1800’s. The demand for these treats skyrocketed so bakers began to produce them domestically.

Stauffer's Biscuit Company was the first company to produce animal crackers in 1871 in York, Pennsylvania. Other local bakeries soon came together under the National Biscuit Company, or "Nabisco Brands."  Since the start, there have been 37 different animals featured in the box at one time or another.

Today is National Animal Crackers Day, so why not grab a box at your local store to enjoy, you can gobble them up while watching Shirley Temple sing about them, or maybe you can find the movie Animal Crackers with the Marx Brothers and just laugh the day away!

(All images from Google)