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Halfway to 100: I Want Candy

Note: this post is part of today's Spirit of America challenge. To find out what's going on and what you missed already and how to join in, please start here and scroll up. All the questions are in one happy place. 50k all the way! The magic halfway number of 50 is upon us and I am not resting until I finish off 100. Please note that all of the questions - from both email and comments - have been printed out, stuffed in a box and are being picked at random. If your question never gets answered, perhaps I will use it as blogging fodder for one day. Tonight's Q&A session is being brough to you buy Bloody Mary, with an assist from Don Julio vodka. If only I had the ingredients to make the Jim Treacher "I'm not Gay" Special. And Jeter has hit a home run. You may stop with the booing now, people. #50. What kind of candy did you like as a child? Back when I was a kid, there were real candy stores. You could walk in with fifty cents and come out with a bagful of teeth rotting sweetness. Carl's was the candy store of choice. Sometimes we would go to Murray's, but he kept a nasty German Shepard in the store and one time I found a bite mark in a piece of Bazooka Joe gum, so we stopped going there. Carl had all the cool candy. If something new came out, it would be on the shelves the very day it entered the market. I remember the first time I tried a Watchmacallit. Heavenly. My favorite candies from my bygone era, some of which still exist today, but just don't hold the same power that they did back when I was ten and stealing change from my mother's purse so I could help Carl pay his rent. iwantcandy.jpg Halfway there.

Comments

Dang, Fruit Stripe, bubblegum cigs, and those wax tubes full of syrupy sugar water. We kickin' it old school here.

Ever have any Twin Bings? They look terrible, but trust me-- those things are Iowa's gift to civilization. Well, Sioux City's gift, anyway.
One of these days I'm going to have a crate of them delivered right to my door. Mmmm...

On another note, what ever happened to bubblegum cigarettes? Did they get legislated away, or are they still around?

Addendum-- looks like they're still around. w00t.

Mmmmm, bottlecaps. Nummy. I loved those. Bought 'em at the liquor store which was very close to the elementary school.

I used to buy those fake cigarettes, too. You know, the ones that were gum but came in tubes?

Yeah, you definitely won't see those any more.

No, they're around. Check the link in my second post. And for quite a reasonable price, too.

Still, I think my money would be better spent on Clove or Beemans gum: the mother of all chewing gums.

looking for the impossible to find treats?
one of the BEST candy stores

http://hometownfavorites.com/index_dyn.asp

I love those wax tube things.

Not much of a pop rocks fans, but it was fun to give to my dogs and watch their facial expressions.

and what genius thought up candy cigs for kids?! that person has to be laughing all the way to the bank still.

but what are those blue and pink dotted things?

At my old station there were a large number of smokers and they bought me candy cigarettes (pure sugar, yumm!) so I could participate.

Oh, bottle caps were sooo good, and Dots! Loved those. Oh and those lick-it-stick things. Mmmmmm.

Great. Now I'm all hungry. :P

The blue and pink dotted things were sugar dots. At least that was the what the label scrawled in crayon said at my local candy store, Deany's, back home in Chicago. It was literally a dot of pure sugar that you had to gnaw off the paper strip. The trick was to see if you could get the candy off without ANY paper stuck to it.