Hot Time, Summer in the City, Back of my neck….
Oh, right – I’ve never really lived in ‘The City’
except for a few brief months after I was born.
So I don’t remember, City isn’t part of my story.
But Hot Time, Summer is.
In the olden days, the days of my childhood and youth, air-conditioning was an Act of God. When the temps went up, up, UP no machine made you cool, you made yourself cool.
Cool was a state of mind.
Cool was something we all wanted to be.
Cool was something you found at the beach.
When I was in high school, the
Bain de Soleil St. Tropez Tan
was cool.
So we went to the beach to get it. Not to St. Tropez….we lived near Cape Cod.
Old Cape Cod.

Click HERE to hear.
And I remember that Judith got to use the car and we piled in, with our quarters for gas money (Was this the year it went up to 35 ¢ a gallon? Darn you OPEC, ruining our all-American fun) and our Ban de Soliel and our towels and Sun In.

The lightened hair was SOOOO great against the dark tan. I’ve got fair Irish skin, so I don’t tan, I burn, and burnt for years before sunBLOCK was generally available.
And food – sandwiches, the later emphasis to be SAND-wiches, chips and and crackers and cheese and cookies and oranges and apples and – well, we never went hungry, and we often ate before we left and ate again when we got home, but one time, when the traffic was backed up before the Bridge and the radio was playing loud and HOT and we were on the road forever and a day and not even on the Cape – yet ….
Carol had made a sweet treat full of butter and sugar and some nuts and Graham crackers and a little more butter to hold it altogether. Betty Crocker had a name for these confections, but as we ate them in the car in the heat in the traffic, licking them off our fingers and hands and wrists and possibly arms so that the Bain de Soliel and sugar were all part of the same experience, they were re-christened
OOEY-GOOEYS.
Because they were. And they were good. They were a taste memory of Summer good.
OOEY-GOOEYS (!)
½ Cup butter
1 (1 oz) square unsweetened chocolate
¼ cup granulate sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg, beaten
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
½ cup chopped nuts
¼ cup butter
1 Tbsp milk or cream
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ squares (1 ½ oz) unsweetened chocolate
- Melt ½ cup butter and 1 square chocolate in saucepan.
- Blend gran. Sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, egg, crumbs, and nuts into butter chocolate mixture.
- Mix well and press into ungreased baking dish, 11 ½ X 7 ½ X 1 ½” OR 9 X 9 X 1 ¾”.
- Mix ¼ cup butter, milk, confectioners’ sugar and 1 tsp vanilla.
- Spread over crumb mixture.
- Melt 1 ½ square chocolate and spread over chilled filling.
- Cut before firm.
Makes about 2 dozen squares.
(Finger Linkin’ Good from Carol Bumpas with thanks to Betty Crocker)
In no way is this Ooey-Gooey to be confused with another, more recent Ooey-Gooey:

A box mix might be Ooey, and if it’s Paula Dean I don’t doubt the gooey, but this is NOT the original Ooey-Gooey.
Ah summer! What Wonderful memories!! Original recipe was in the old Betty Crocker Cookie Book, but not the newer versions. I was shocked to see that Betty C’s original recipe had coconut, which I would never have used, even if we had some. Much better this way.
Coconut would just be WRONG – so glad you correct and perfect old Betty C. I saw an old model car with five teens and lots of towels in Plymouth Center the other day, and I had a sudden craving for Ooey-Gooeys…and a suntan!
The 1963 edition of The Betty Crocker Cooky Book is in facsimile on Amazon…
Yes, that’s the one. Page 114.
Our beach was on Lake Michigan, where the water was rarely above 55% until August. But definitely wanted that tan and Sun In for our hair — though it turned your hair orange if you used it on dark chestnut hair. Never had those ooey-gooeys at the beach, but definitely had them and remember them fondly. Thanks for a trip down memory lane.
I forgot about the orange hair effect…and the Bain de Soliel self tanner also turned you pretty orange -Ah, youth!
Yeah — I can remember orange hair and orange skin and thinking I looked like the California Girl in the Beach Boys’ song. Sigh.