THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 11, 1995 TAG: 9505090080
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Like many Americans, 7-year-old Kathleen Tomplinson twists the top off her Oreo cookie before eating it, piece by piece.
Her dad, however, crams the whole thing into his mouth with one big crunch.
Brianna Laird, 6, prefers to dunk her Oreo into milk before eating it.
``It makes cookie juice,'' this Norfolk first-grader explained.
Robert Keister likes to nibble his Oreo in three munches. And, after she twists it apart, Destyne Painter eats each side of her cookie, one at a time.
Five-year-old Pilar Espinosa figures her Oreo-eating is a lot like a baboon's.
``A baboon rattles it around, and then gets a man to put it in his mouth for him,'' this Norfolk kindergartner said with twinkling brown eyes. ``I get my mom to help me.''
During March, 24 students in kindergarten through third grade at St. Pius X School joined a national movement seeking to uncover the secrets of eating an Oreo cookie.
It all started when their teacher, Fran Adams, saw a newspaper article about a call-in survey conducted by Nabisco.
Some 174,000 people from around the country called the Oreo manufacturer to register their opinions on the best way to eat the 75-year-old cookies.
``I thought this would be fun as a family activity for my Chapter One kids,'' said Adams, who oversees the St. Pius' federally funded program for reading and math. ``These are the kids who don't usually get picked for the spelling bees and the plays ... and I thought it would be something that they participate in that would make them feel very special. And it was something they could do with their families.''
Adams gave each student a survey form and enough Oreos for each family member. Of course that meant their homework assignment included eating cookies, albeit in the name of scientific research.
``We all said, `Oh, goodie,' '' recalled 9-year-old Nichole Stehm, a twister. ``This was fun - not really like homework.''
After enlisting brothers, sisters, parents and grandparents to sample the cream-filled goodies, the kids returned with almost 150 responses. Just as the callers in the Nabisco survey reported, most of the St. Pius samplers were twisters.
``We figured someone's job at the Oreo factory must be to just sit on the assembly line and make sure all the cookies are twistable,'' Adams said. ``They do twist apart quite well.''
A few St. Pius cookie-eaters stood out from the pack.
One grandmother admitted to twisting off the top, eating the filling and then feeding the chocolate outside to her dog. Nichole Stehm's mother, Patti, added peanut butter after twisting the cookie apart. Almost all the dads gulped their cookies in a single bite.
As part of their unit on Oreos, the teacher included a history lesson on the cookie's creation, a reading session centered around stories about cookies and math exercises that included counting cookies.
Perhaps the most touching part of the project for Adams was when she asked her kids to make wishes on their Oreo. In Oreo tradition, a wish is granted when all the frosting ends up one one side of a cookie twisted apart.
``Those wishes really touched my heart,'' Adams said. ``The prominent wish was that they wanted their dads to come home ... whether from sea or after divorces. It really made me realize a lot can come from just eating a cookie.'' by CNB