What the Fluff? An American lunchbox icon is turning 100

(AP) — Fluff turns 100 this year, and the marshmallow concoction that has been smeared on a century's worth of schoolchildren's sandwiches has inspired a festival and other sticky remembrances.

Every year, between 5 million and 7 million pounds of the sticky cream invented in suburban Boston in 1917 is produced and sold worldwide, although half the supply is bought up by New Englanders and people in upstate New York.

Over the past decade, fans of Fluff have been staging an annual "What the Fluff?" festival in Somerville, Massachusetts, where the American lunchbox icon was born.

In 1920, Durkee and Mower began producing and selling Fluff, which they first named Toot Sweet Marshmallow Fluff.

Fluff lovers "associate it with their own childhood and image of home," Graney says.

The festival draws about 10,000 people who gather for activities including cooking and eating contests, Fluff jousting, Fluff blowing, a game called Blind Man Fluff, and concerts.