Fruitcake before Twinkies

The question continues each holiday season, why fruitcake? Is there a shortage of door stops? Did someone hang on to their fruitcake last year instead of regifting it like you're supposed to. Really fruitcake is the ultimate recycle when you think about it. I mean nobody eats those do they? I guess if you soak 'em in enough booze you might not care about the taste.
Now my mother, who is at home with the Lord, had fond memories of making fruitcake every Christmas with her mother. It was a special event with everyone involved, Daddy gathering the pecans, my mom and her sisters shelling them, their mom mixing the batter, etc. But think about it, what was going to be their big Christmas sweet? Maybe an orange, possibly a Hershey bar split three ways? The bottom line is, these people did not have Twinkies. In a pre-Twinkie world, fruitcake probably tasted sweet and special. How is fruitcake going to compete in the snack capital of the known universe?