kittenmmm's blog post - what were we thinking?

We went to the store yesterday to get fixings for chili and we ended up talking about things we used to eat as kids.

Remember those malted milk balls? When was the last time you had one of those? We used to think they were awesome but the last time I had one, which was years ago, I realized that they were awful...

How about the Circus Peanuts? They were these god awful sugar things shaped sort of like peanuts and they were a color that has yet to be identified. You would melt them in your mouth until they turned into this solid mass that could be neither chewed nor swallowed. Nasty.

My favorites were the Flying Saucers. Two colored wafers stuck together on the edges and filled with these tiny multi colored balls of sugar. The wafers always made me think of the hosts at mass and as kids we would pop the wafers open, eat the balls and then play church. It was a great thrill to be the priest who gave out communion. Now that I think of it, it was probably to avoid eating the wafers.

Penny candy, which has gone the way of the doctor who makes housecalls, was a favorite for all the kids. You got a nickle or so and would run off to the neighborhood store and spend a half hour just looking at the candy trying to decide what you were going to spend your precious money eating. Swedish fish, orange slices (those gummy gobs covered in sugar), Mary janes, Squirrels (still can't remember the full name of those), Bazooka Joe (so you would have a comic and a chew), gumballs, jelly beans, Mike & Ike's, Red Hots, Fireballs (one of my favorites), Jolly Ranchers (the sour apple and watermelon of course), the wax bottles with the sugar water in them, rock candy, etc..,.

If you had a dollar you could eat swedish fish for a whole day and still have some money left for more. Your jaw might be sore but you'd be happy.

There's a candy store in Woonsocket, RI that still sells all the old candy that I remember eating as a kid. It's a bit over a penny now but it's still like a trip to childhood just to walk in there. I wouldn't eat half the stuff that's in there because I now have functional taste buds but it's still makes me laugh to think of them.

tripping through childhood candyland
kitt xxx