'Ode To Hostess' tributes appear on blogs, YouTube

Following the news that Hostess Brand was closing it's doors, people fearing the end of such American icons as Twinkies and Ho-Ho's expressed their sadness through song and poetry.

According to a New York Times report, public reaction to the Hostess announcement has been overwhelming. Those that grew up with Twinkies and other Hostess snack cakes in the lunch pails became nostalgic, saddened by the possibility that the iconic snacks would no longer be seen on store shelves. As reported by Digital Journal, shoppers rushed to their nearest store, grabbing their favorite snack off the shelves, while Ebay has been flooded with various Hostess Brand auctions according to another Digital Journal report. It did not take long for those in mourning to go public, sharing their grief with other Hostess Brand lovers. Nathan Badley posted a poem called So Long My Friend (An Ode To Hostess). He writes: "So long my friend, farewell to you. We’ve been through thick and thin, tis true. The times we’ve shared shall never fade, until the end of my dying day." He ends his ode by saying: "So farewell, my friend, I bid adieu. Through the rest of my years, I shant forget you. Just warning, though, you soon shall be replaced by Little Debbie Zebra Cakes." Before It's News also posted a tribute to a part of Americana now lost. In it, the writer says: "Today it was announced that Hostess is closing its doors, the grocery stores shelves will be absent another childhood memory. Gone are the sweet treats purchased by Dad at some out of the way gas station on Sunday drives through the Michigan country side.

Lost will be the smell coming from their small town commercial bakeries, where bleached flour, sugar and chemicals none of us could articulate were being blended, molded and cooked into tasty treats that had shelve lives longer than human life spans." He concludes by saying: "Lost will be the clutter that gathers along the side of empty city streets, and in that clutter there smiling up at us would be Dolly, gently reminding us of simpler times and pleasures." In what Buzz Feed calls the best "parody about the death of snack food you'll hear", an 11-year-old sings of his sadness about the loss of Hostess Brand. The singer states: "'Cause there'll be no Ho-Hos

If I lose you, Hostess

Like melting Sno-Balls

My eyes will do the same, if you go away

Every day it will rain, rain, rain..." Chuck Whetstone also posted a YouTube video called Ballad of The Hostess Brands. The lyrics are sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the famed Peter Paul and Mary song Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Even if many of the popular Hostess snacks are given a second lease on life, being purchased by other companies, many will still mourn the loss of Hostess. As 23-year-old Anna Rice told the Boston Globe: “It’s not going to be the same as the real thing.”