Candy to a young child in the early 1960s was doubly sweet. Not only did you get a nickel or two to spend as you wanted, but you also got a treat to take with you to school the next day to munch on during recess. I fondly remember my friends and I lounging on the front steps of the school and enjoying Sugar Daddies—those long lasting caramel suckers on a stick, Sugar Mamas—the same but chocolate, and hard candy apples on a stick—scarlet on the outside and a blinding white within. Quite often the Sugar Daddies lasted longer than recess, and we would rewrap them to finish later at home.
Power flavors that revved up our taste buds came in the form of red hots and fire ball jaw breakers. We loved tootsie pops and tested M&Ms to see if the ad was true (“melts in your mouth, not in your hands”). We rummaged like banshees through boxes of Cracker Jacks looking for the prize. We put candy cigarettes between our fingers and pretended to smoke. We drank kool aid or some sweet liquid from little wax bottle nips. At Halloween we set our teeth around red wax lips and reveled in the pleasant taste. We shared “be mine” hearts on Valentine’s Day. I remember bubble gum cigars and liking the comics in one brand of flat square bubble gum but the softness and big bubble capacity of another brand that came in a hexagon shape. I’m not sure, but those may have been Bazooka and Dubble Bubble.
I remember sticks of chewing gum: Juicy Fruit (my mother’s favorite), Spearmint (my sister’s favorite) Dentyne (my father’s favorite), and the happy miracle of Chiclets. On leave from the Navy, my brother put pennies in a machine to buy me round candy coated gum balls. My grandmother liked the offbeat flavor of Bit O Honey candy. Since my mother ran restaurants, the shelves were always stocked with chocolate candy bars like Mound, Almond Joy, Hollywood, Zero, Milk Shake, and Butterfinger. Any of them went well with the delicious banana flavored soft drinks in the cooler.
After school and on weekends we played jacks, old maid, cowboys and Indians, hop scotch, red rover, drop the handkerchief, mother may I, and roller skated, hulahooped, and yoyoed to our heart’s content. Some of us (namely me) also pretended mud puddles were the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and entertained fairies as we sat on the regal curving branches of the back yard orange tree.
Candy was just the icing.
Cheers & Happy Reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic with Paranormal Fantasy Romance
Wow! Thank you for that delightful trip down memory lane. It brought back so many fun memories… candies I loved and games I enjoyed. Bazooka was definitely the one with the comic wrapped inside. I remember how we used to stock up on penny candies at the local pharmacy that had a bar/soda fountain. And one of my favorite games from childhood was hide-and-seek. A truly delightful post, Flossie! This made my day 🙂
We also went to the drugstore on the corner to buy ice cream cones. My father would give me eleven cents for a strawberry ice cream, and I would always end up getting fudge ripple. Hide and seek was a favorite of mine too and was especially fun about dusk, as we had to be home by dark.
I remember Sugar Daddies and BB Bats (toffee on a stick) when we were on the beach as kids. I used to try and steal my brothers’ gum that came with their baseball cards – deliciously stale, the same way I like Peeps.
Ooh, sugar daddies and toffee on the beach — yum. Oh yes, I remember that baseball card gum. There was a time around 1967 when I got obsessed with the Red Sox and collected cards.
Ah, I remembered so much after reading this piece. Like the time I spent a whole two shillings on bubble gum. My mom wasn’t pleased but I had enough gum to last me a fortnight. Yes, I played hopscotch too, though I never had a real scotch, just a big pebble. Lovely post.
I can remember as a small child my older sister would put her gum on the bedpost at night. I hadn’t thought of it in a while, and your comment dredged up the nice memory. Is a fortnight twenty days? I have always loved that word.