Thursday, March 22, 2012

Thoughts on Thursday...

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Did you have a penny candy store near you when you were growing up? The store where I grew up was called Bettez Candy Store and was literally the "corner" store. Even the door was on the corner of the building...on an angle. So cute, now that I think about it!! The screen door slammed when it closed.

I can still picture the inside of the store. Short counter on the right, old fashioned register and then rows and rows of candy loose in cute little boxes.
  • wax lips
  • candy cigarettes...remember blowing the confectioner's sugar?
  • flying saucers...wafers with the little beads in them
  • pixie stixs...the paper straws with...well, pure sugar in it.
  • wax bottles...bite the top off, drink the liquid and then chew the wax forever
  • caramel creams or bull's eye...these were my favorite. Still are.
  • squirrels...nutty caramels with the waxed paper wrappers
  • bubble gum cigars
  • Necco wafers...my mom always had these in the bottom of her purse. I ate them even with the purse lint. Lol !! Loved the black licorice flavor

What was your favorite penny candy? What nostalgic candies are from your past?

Happy Thursday,
~Karen~

47 comments:

  1. chick o stix, six lets, bit o honeys

    now I want some neccos loved the white and pink ones.

    our corner store also on a corner with the door on the corner was called "Millies" it was always so hard to decide how to spend my dime.

    Robin in Washington State

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  2. Oh Sixlets! Yum! And Smarties. And Bazooka Joe with comics I never quite understood. I don't even remember the name of our corner store, we just called it the Corner Store! LOL! It was 7 blocks from my house and I remember how proud I was the very first time my mom let me walk down there by myself to pick up butter for her. And a couple of candies for me. Or a cold Grape Nehi from the soda machine. Mmmmm. Good memories.

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  3. Bottle caps are the ones I remember right off. We loved to spend our pennies at the Bateman Dairy. We would even collect bottles for money so we could buy a treat. Thanks for the memories.

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  4. We called our store thMinute Mart. And we hat to go "up front" to get there! That meant we walked on the banquet toward the large street. up front. Anything else was " in the parish".

    When we went up front we would collect all the tossed out bottles on the neutral ground and turn them in for money to buy the candy!

    I loved the Mary Janes which were peanut butter.

    Thanks for the great memories!!!

    glen in, of all places, Louisiana

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    1. We had relatives that owned the vending machines around town when I was a child and they kept their inventory of candy and gum in their converted garage. I could go out there after dinner and pick out anything I wanted. My favorite was the Triple Decker candy bar. One layer of dark chocolate, one layer of white chocolate, and one layer of milk chocolate made by Nestle. THE VERY BEST CANDY BAR EVER!!!!!!

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  5. U-No bars, wax bottles, candy necklaces, sugar babies. Our candy store was the hardware store--they had a fab candy counter.

    We actually have a candy store near us. They have wax lips, u-no, candy cigarettes (though they don't call them that any more, but the box and everything is the same!), the whole 9 yards. Fortunately it's not walking distance, but it a perfect stop for a bike ride :)

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  6. Definitely Bit-Honey. Remember the tune .. Bit O Honey goes a long, long way, if you have one piece it lasts all day. Well, I play a game when I eat them and see if I can let it melt in my mouth till its gone...I rarely can.

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  7. Oh the memories!! I loved choo choo bars, and could never resist the toffee apple! Mmmmmmmmmm.......................

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  8. I bought my penny candy at the 7-11. I still love Atomic Fire Balls.

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  9. Oh my! I had forgotten these.... Loved the candy cigarettes and the Pixy stix, but my favorite was the wax bottles of "coke".... wow, memory lane!!!

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  10. We are so lucky to still have such a store. It is the Mast General Store in Valle Crucis, NC. My son loves to go and get a basket and fill it with candy from the barrels. They weigh it and charge by the pound. They have all the "old-time" candies as well as the new ones kids love.

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  11. Oh, love the memories! I loved the little waxed bottles and the little chocolate cups...can't remember what they were called. After eating the chocolate then we would like the foil wrapper clean, flatten it out and strung them on a thread and made a necklace with them. It was a real honor to have the biggest necklace! LOL

    ouroldhomestead.blogspot.com

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  12. So funny. The way you describe your candy strore sounds like ours did. On the corner with the slamming wooden screen door on a nice summer day. It was called Papa's and was located right up from the street from the ocean in beautiful Narragansett RI. The smell of salt in the air on a hot sunny day...mmmm, To be a kid again....I have always been a sucker for Swedish fish and root beer barrels. I also loved to get the wax juice filled tubes. Fire balls are also my favorite. Memories. Love them! Thanks K.

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  13. Yep. A store just like that, on the corner. Gerhart's. I liked the wax bottles, too. Chewed the wax sooo long! And candy necklaces and bracelets. So gross now that I think of it, wearing them on your hot sweaty body, then biting the candy off of them!
    While I still lived in that area, the store closed and they turned it into an apartment :-(

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  14. I used to ride my bike two blocks up and over a busy street to the WAWA. I used to get comic books, wax bottles, and dots(ya know on the paper strips).

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  15. used to walk past a store on my way to piano lessons once a week and i had change to pick up red licorce on the way home.

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  16. wow bring back memories huh.sugar babies,bit a honey,baby ruth. zag nut bar. pay day , pixie stix. and also archie comic books

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  17. Thank you for generating a fun walk back in time. I remember Mrs. Croniacks corner store and my favorite were the caramels with the white centers. I loved the wooden shelves that tilted forward with a ridge so the boxes of candy would not slip off onto the floor. The heavy sliding door on the cooler there...what great memories...THANK YOU!

    Smiles,
    Kelly

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  18. Any excuse to go to the penny candy store. I loved the chewy 'hats'.

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  19. We had 2 drugstores on the Main street, in the same block. Stone Drug, and the other one that I forge the name of which was on the corner as well! Stone drug is still there and has a lunch counter. So cool! Anyway, we used to take clogging lessons on the second floor of the firehouse down the block and at break we would run down and buy bags of penny candy, Swedish fish and berries were my favorites, juju coins as well as banana bikes(?) (like Laffy Taffy only square), baseball taffy suckers (chocolate or banana), bazooka gum, sixlets and Slapsticks when I had some real cash. :)

    We also would hit the gas station up the road from our school for sour straws. They were better than the ones they make now. And also candy chalk. (So gross!)

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  20. We too had penny candy at the "corner" store with the "corner" door. It was such a treat to take your pop bottles (the glass ones) to the store and get 5 cents for each one. We would scour the neighborhood to find pop bottles to take to the store. When I would get a quarter for some good deed, I'd run to the store and get 25 cents worth of penny candy -- many of the penny candy was 2 or 3 for a penney and I'd go home with a brown bag crammed full, happy as a clam!! Have you tried shopping at the Good Old Days online store -- they have MANY of the candy (and other things) from the 50's and 60's. Necco's for sure -- Teabury gum; Slow Pokes; Sugar Daddy; French Chews and others.

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  21. Our local store was The Cheer Shoppe....and my personal favorites were Bubs Daddy (foot long) bubble gum, Zotz, and Sweet Tarts. The Giant ones.
    After getting our candy we should walk up to the 7-11 and get a Slurpee (and the inevitable Brain Freeze!)

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  22. We had a candy store down the street too. I loved flying saucers. We used to take a little bite to get the beads out then used them for communion wafers as we played church. Such a fun memory! I also loved candy dots...different colored dots on a strip of paper. Usually you got more paper in your mouth.

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  23. I remember all of those candies! My mom wouldn't let us buy candy cigarettes, but we loved the peanut butter logs! We also bought a candy called a Long Boy that was like a caramel with coconut in it.

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  24. We used to ride our bikes to the Cumberland Farms store and we felt so grown-up going in and buying our own candy. My favorite was Astro Pops but I liked the Now n' Laters too! Yum!! Wish they still made Astro Pops!!

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  25. Santa Cruz market and Mayfair market were the two closest stores to us but mostly we bought our candy from the ice cream vendor. I liked Laffy Taffy, Bottle Caps and Abba Zabba. Haven't had any of those for many years!

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  26. Thanks for the trip down memory lane - I can see it, smell it, and hear it. YUM!

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  27. Honeycomb was my favorite. It was from the penny candy store at the Brentwood Country Mart (which may have officially been in Santa Monica) but sold by the pound. The best thing about honeycomb? I have a recipe for it now that I'm a grownup!!!

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  28. One of my favorite candies was and still is the candy cigarettes. As a kid, a friend and I were going for a walk on a fall evening. We had candy cigarettes and were pretending to smoke and watch our breath as we exhaled. We thought we were so cool. We walked past a nosy neighbor's house on our route. He actually thought we were smoking and called my Dad (not my mom! YIKES!!). We got home and my Dad chewed me out for smoking!! I was in shock, not only because I was a goody-two-shoes and wouldn't dream of smoking real cigarettes, but also because the nosy neighbor and my Dad were both smokers! This is a funny story, it makes me laugh every time I think of it!

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  29. Oh, yes. Your thoughts certainly brought back some memories. I think our little store was called Ray's or Raymond's...something like that! It's been so long ago! I liked the penny bubble gum, and I think ours was 2 for a penny. It was also a huge treat to buy a bottle of orange crush, root beer, or grape soda and a small package of peanuts. We would drop the peanuts into the bottle of soda and enjoy them together:) I know, some people may not find that too appetizing, but we loved it!

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  30. Katie's was the name of the "old fashioned" candy store from my childhood. They actually kept their candy in big wooden barrels and you had to use a big metal scoop to get the candy out. I loved (and still do) those little red fish!

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  31. I had a corner sweet shop too when I was little called Jempsons I think. My favourite sweets were the Shebert Lemons.

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  32. This is awful, but candy cigarettes

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  33. Loved the red licorice with the yellow stuff in the center. Also loved the penny hard licorice. My kids were lucky when we moved to this small town and there was a little store called "Bob's" that had penny candy (Swedish fish, etc.) so they got to have the experience. It closed about 10 years ago though so my grandkids can't experience it. Oh, and Razzles! I liked Razzles a lot!

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  34. I loved Tootsie Rolls then and still do now!

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  35. It's so hard to choose a favourite, but the corner shop near my primary school sold penny fizzes that fizzed on your tongue, black jacks and fruit salad chews, flying saucers, rainbow sherbert served in a paper cone, just to mention a few!

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  36. I'm with you on carmel creams. I still occasionally buy them as a treat. We had an "Andy's" store close to our summer cottage. Kathie L in Allentown

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  37. Hands down it was Mint Juleps for me! WE had a similiar penny candy store near us too. They may have had other things for sale, but I only saw the candy.

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  38. Boy, this does bring back memories, Karen! Right in the picture, there are Bit-O-Honey's....LOVED them! Others I loved were: candy lipsticks, Sugar Daddys, Pom Poms, Goobers, Raisinetts, fire-balls, Turkish Taffy, oh gosh...so many! Also, all of the ones you mentioned. Loved those lil' wax soda bottles... It was fun to stop to take a minute and remember...yes, as one commenter said, I can taste and smell them even now...SIGH.

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  39. Karen,
    I loved the candy necklaces; I wear them and bite off one piece at a time. Also loved the paper with the candy beads attached. Had to eat them in a certain order, of course.

    Necco wafers-when we were practicing for First Holy Communion in the second grade, and when the boys were practicing to be altar boys, Sister would use Necco wafers as the hosts. If you got the black one, that meant she wasn't very happy with you. I got a lot of black ones...

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  40. My favorite cost a nickel. It was saltwater taffy wrapped in wax paper.

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  41. Caramel creams and I can buy them at Joann's fabric store of all places. I also loved the Boston baked beans candy. Those were always a special treat from my Dad.

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  42. Didn't have candy stores here in Aus but I remember being able to buy Licorice square, very chewy 4 squares for a cent you sure got you 5 cents worth as each square was an inch square

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  43. I loved the wax bottles too! red hot dollars were good and turkish taffy.

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  44. Wow, thanks for the memories! I loved so many but the pixie stix were a real winner. We didn't have a candy store, but a small neighborhood store. The candy was next to the check out & the man let us take all the time we needed. The big question was whether to spend a nickel on the tube of peanuts that might have a nickel, a dime, or a quarter inside - or nothing.

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  45. lots of good candy store memories - the old drug store in town was the best - and my family owns a store that sells bulk old fashioned candy now - but the bets memory was actually the shoe store, which had an old steamer trunk full of candy that we could pick from after picking out our shoes and getting fitted. Black Jacks and Mary Janes... the best!

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