Friday, October 30, 2015

Halloween Candy

Clicked on a link about Halloween candy from the 50s and 60s and read this:

Now that you're a fancy-shmancy adult, you may salivate over a bar of artisanal 77 percent dark chocolate with pink sea-salt hand-sifted by Tibetan monks, but we know when Halloween rolls around, you secretly crave the mass-produced, artificially flavored sugar-bombs from your past.

So here's their list and my commentary:

Candy Cigarettes: Of course! Both my parents smoked so here was our chance to get in on the action. Problem was the candy cigarettes didn't come in the same brand that my parent's smoked (Father: Salem; Mother: Marlboro) so we typically got stuck with Lucky Strikes. My Great Aunt Dorothy smoked Lucky Strikes (unfiltered) and I have a memory of her picking pieces of loose tobacco from her lipsticked lips. Also I thought the red "burning" tip of the candy cigarette was quite cool. Looked hot, but wasn't.

Bottle Caps: Don't know this one... here's a picture...



Button Candy: Not a big fan; remembering feeling as if I were eating bits of paper and glue along with the very boring candy. Looked fun; tasted not so fun.

Circus Peanuts: No, no, a thousand times no. Tasted like eating creamy styrofoam.




Good & Plenty: I am more of a fan of red licorice than black, but I enjoyed biting into this, biting the piece of G&P at its middle so the candy shell came off, chewing on that and then sucking on the black licorice.

Smarties: Again, not a fan. Aren't these bitter? I also have a vague memory of my little sister eating too many of these things repeatedly so that her lips started bleeding. I could be remembering that wrong...
*******medical update: I asked my brother in law to clear up this memory with my sister. He responded, "She says it was her tongue that bled. From too many giant Sweetarts!" So it was Sweetarts, not Smarties. I was close...lips, tongue... I was in the right area.

Candy Corn: Oh yes, a staple! How you eat a piece of candy corn is to bite off each color individually so you eat it in three bites.




Pez Cinnamon: Never liked anything cinnamon in candy, or spicy, or red hot. Cinnamon in coffee cakes/cookies is a whole 'nother story. Give me sweet all day.

Boston Baked Beans: Couldn't always find these, but I do have a positive memory of them.



Astropop: These came later so they were not in my prime time childhood, but I do remember them... really just a lollipop, which we called LOLLIPOPs and thought our Wisconsin cousins who called them SUCKERS were just plain wrong.



Jaw Breakers: Not really. I think I was too impatient to just suck on the damn thing and let it get smaller. I would try to bite it and I'm amazed I didn't break my jaw doing so.

Sugar Babies: Yes, but was a bigger fan of Sugar Daddys!


Bazooka Gum: Oh yeah... remember when it was a penny? I don't know if it's even for sale any more. What was that character's name with the red turtleneck in the comic that came with it. Nothing like a big piece of FRESH Bazooka in your mouth chomping away.

1 comment:

Blogger said...

Are you paying more than $5 per pack of cigs? I buy my cigarettes from Duty Free Depot and I save over 70%.