Crosswords1 min ago
Are Wagon Wheels smaller?
Or is it an illusion because I was smaller then?
Or did they go metric at some point and get downsized to conform to some European regulation?
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by Robert G. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.The Wagon Wheel Effect describes a phenomenon witnessed by over 90% of adults in the Western World as they move from childhood into adolescence and adulthood.
It usually works like this: one day you enter your local sweet shop and happen to notice they sell Wagon Wheels. Overcome by nostalgia for when your mother used to buy them for you, you get some but are horrified to discover they have shrunk! Not just shrunk, in fact, they seem to be tiny. It used to take you the best part of an hour to eat a Wagon Wheel; it was a meal in itself. Now you can pop the whole thing into your mouth in one go. Your mind fills with disgust at the greedy confectionery corporations who have conspired to make smaller and smaller sweets as you have gotten older. As if inflation isn't bad enough, they have to go and do this as well...
Of course the reality is much harder to accept - it is your grubby paws and salivating mouth that have got much larger; Wagon Wheels are the same size they always were, more or less.
MrsJo49155: While I therefore disagree with your last statement, I like your term 'The Wagon Wheel Effect' very much. I wonder if there was an earlier term with the same meaning which has become generally accepted, or whether you've just invented the first one?
BTW. Can anyone really pop a whole Wagon Wheel in their mouth in one go?
It is a question I finally got the answer to when I visted The Beamish Museum. Viewing a 1940/50's local shop which was stocked out with genuine period products including Wagon Wheels & by comparison the original biscuit was HUGE!
If anyone ever fancies taking a walk back in time then a visit to the Beamish Museum is a must.