I was browsing an Internet forum and a few posters were talking about buying candy when they were kids.
When I was a kid my family would visit family in rural Alberta on holidays and at one point we always had a stop at the general store. You would have a variety of stuff in jars or on shelves. Candy ranged from a few cents and up. A few cents would get you a piece of rock hard bubble gum. Kids had strong jaws in those days.
In the store you would head over to the candy rack. There was liquorice whips or pipes in jars. I bought the red ones, I never liked the black ones. Candy sticks in a few dozen flavours in jars. I always got sarsaparilla and root beer flavoured sticks. Dad liked jawbreakers so I get a few of those for him, they came in many sizes. I have not seen jawbreakers in years. You would look over the huge variety of stuff, grab your choices, and head up to the counter. There you would be rung up and your various treasures would end up in a paper sack keeping what you bought anonymous. You might trade some of your stash, you rarely wanted to share it.
As a kid this was an event.
Those were the days.
Great memories!
ReplyDeleteDid you have the Schwans truck in Canada? Here in Minnesota, when you lived out of town, the Schwans truck would bring to your door a wonderful variety of frozen delights. The truck carried a variety of frozen foods, but the best part were the 3 gallon cans of ice cream. And the boxes of fudgesicles or Eskimo pies or in the summer, popsicles.
I really miss the Schwans truck. Sigh.
Yes, we had the Schwann’s truck. They had great stuff.
DeleteThe bulk food store in Gladwin Michigan still has all the old candies. Amish farm town. I have a package of Black Jack chewing gum I bought years ago, I keep it to to remember.
ReplyDeleteI'm so old that I remember when penny candy actually did only cost a penny per piece! I have fond memories of going to our small town corner store too, which had a great selection of rot-your-teeth goodies.
ReplyDeleteYes - rock hard bubble gum, I remember that! When we were in BC in October we visited a candy shop that was just like you describe. Jars upon jars of candy I hadn't seen in years. Cost way more than a penny though!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I like what you shared about the candies years ago. My husband is 78 and I'm 74 and we can remember when you could get 3 pieces of candy for a penny!
ReplyDeleteIt was 5.5 miles to town. My cousin and I would take our bicycles the half mile to the paved road and ride our bikes to town. We would pickup soda pop bottles and trade that in for penny candy and a 10 cent 6.5 fl oz coke.
ReplyDeleteA few times I was able to cash in some bottles as well.
DeleteI remember going to the CANEX store in CFB Shearwater and buying Bazooka gum. It was cheap and you got a joke too - not always a great one but you get what you pay for.
ReplyDeleteBazooka gum was the stuff I was referring to as being hard. It was cheap though.
Delete