You know you are "old" when you go into a specialty candy store and buy...
ok, you are on a trip with the kids; they go straight for the sour gummies and stuff that squirts. what was your fave candy from back in the day?
if you went into a local “down-home” or specialty candy store, you’d go for what? “mary janes?” “squirrels?” “good & plenty?”
what candy takes you back to your childhood? what makes it better than the stuff kids eat today?
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there was this gum in a long thin sleeve called “bubsdaddy” in all kinds of flavors. it had this powdery sugar on it and was gum at its sugary best. it was the rage in chicago in the 1970s. dont know where i can find it now.
Zots
I just bought a few this summer. Fizzy.
The candy that reminds me of my childhood is werther’s originals. My grandfather always carried them.
They were on their way out when I was really young, but I was a huge fan of Fizzers (or whatever they were called). It was a solid candy that would fizz after a while. Like foaming at the mouth fizz.
@tinyfaery i remember ZOTS. fizzy like alka seltzer i think…
@deni i know, right? what were they thinking when they invented that candy?
Candy Cigaretts.
Sugar Baby’s
Coconut Bon Bons
Boston Bake Beans
Rock candy. If you don’t know what that is, it’s pure sugar crystals. You can make it at home by making a sugar syrup (I think they call it a “simple syrup”) and suspending string in it and letting the water evaporate. I haven’t seen it in YEARS. (This is not the candy that looks like pebbles – it looks like clear quartz crystals.)
ooooooh yes, old fashioned rock candy. And licorice whips and phosphate soda. (But really, I’m not that old.)
I loved the old Jolly Ranchers, candy cigarettes, and Now & Laters.
I always wanted the small wax bottles of colored sugar water and packets of Sen Sen.
Butter Rum Lifesavers
Boston Baked Beans
Mothers Iced Raisin Cookies
Milk Chocolate See’s Candy
Candy necklaces and Pixie Stix (those big straws filled with flavored powder) always remind me of childhood. But if I were to go back in time in a regular store today….a Zero bar or a PayDay would do it. Or Dubble Bubble gum.
Turkish taffy or Lik-M-Aids
@tinyfaery, i just had a zot for the first time about three days ago.
My aunt was really excited about making me eat one haha.
Double Bubble Gum
Turkish Taffy, vanilla
Smith Bros Wild Cherry Coughdrops
Candy Cigarettes
Candy necklaces
Charms suckers, lime
Red licorice sticks
Jordan almonds
a tin of Christmas ribbon candy
red wax lips
jawbreakers
once, i had this “chocolate chip cookie dough” candy and it may have been really gross but i haven’t seen it since i was like 11. it was in a little white tub with a tiny spoon. from what i remember, it tasted like cookie dough but may have had a gritty texture… does anyone remember this??
jawbreakersssss, yesss!!!! great call @Aster – those huge ones were so good!
@Samantha_Rae I actually, when I was an adult, bought a huge one in a plastic case at Montgomery Ward. They called it an egg. It lasted forever. Never saw one again.
@Aster : I have no idea what an egg is, i wonder if it’s the same thing… the one i’m talking about was kinda small (like half the size of a small cream cheese container)
They were typically half the size of a golf ball, right? Like a vending machine one? But the one at Ward’s was, now that I remember, the egg of a dinosaur of some type. It was about half the size of an xl hens egg.
@Austinlad My husband said he used to drink phosphates. What an unattractive name for soda.
gum for a dollar seventy five and grumble about how long ago it was only a quarter.
I absolutely adored orange slices the way they made them in the 1950s. THey’re still good, but not the same thing. If the specialty store had the old fashioned orange slices, they would have a customer for life.
@Aster : ohh i thought you were talking about the cookie dough :( yes the jawbreakers are larger than a golf ball… you had to hold it and just lick that doesn’t sound right
@Samantha_Rae I usually held it in my mouth instead. I know it made me look very refined.
does anybody remember “mary janes?” soft chew in a yellow wrapper with a peanuty taste to it—not the street name for marijuana.
@charliecompany34 My grandfather use to love Mary Janes. He use to always have them at his house and I remember him giving them to us when we were good.
@Samantha_Rae ok; twenty min later I got what you meant. And laughed out loud !!
the diff between a Mary Jane and a Butterfinger is????? tick tock tick tock…
Butterfingers have a crispier inside and no peanut butter center. Mary Janes are peanut-butter and molasses candy with a peanut-butter core. Butterfingers are a flaky, orange-colored, peanut-brittle center with a chocolate coating. Much crispier than a Mary Jane. I remember Mary Janes. I haven’t had one in ages, but I did like them.
I was addicted to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in middle school. Of course, they are still around, but if I had kept eating those cholesterol bombs, I probably wouldn’t be today. :-)
Tootsie Rolls
Atomic Fireballs
Teaberry and Blackjack gum
The good ol’ regular sized Hershey bar which cost $.05.
Fizzies, which were essentially Alka-Seltzer tablets that would flavor water.
Gatorade Gum (Has anyone come across it?)
I have always loved skittles, but for old time candy I love circus peanuts.
@Pied_Pfeffer That’s the third time tonight I’ve landed on that site. The first two were from searches for candies mentioned here. Seems they have the original orange slices still. Great link.
Root beer barrels, bubbalicious, pop rocks, candy cigarettes. pixie sticks.
Candy necklaces and ring pops!
Smarties and Harry Potter Jelly beans. :P
salt water taffy
those nasty orange peanut shaped candies
gum drops
Beemans gum is one of my favorites from my childhood but the flavor lasts for about 30 seconds.
I like “fresh” candy corn…. And I hate those taffy’s with the black witch on a orange background on them ... what is its name?
ok; I forgot rootbeer barrels. Now I wish I had stuck them in the fridge! You can buy most of these oldtime candies on some website. I bet they don’t let you create your own mixture. haha.
I’m the only one who liked to chew on wax lips?
Yes; salt water taffy from the Jersey shore. You could watch it being stretched in the store window. Can’t be duplicated.
Now ‘n’ Laters, or as a girl I knew in primary school used to call them, “Nowmalaters”.
Candy Cigarettes
Circus Peanuts
Licorice Whips
Blackjack Gum
Pixie Sticks
Bottle Caps
Pop Rocks
Nerds
Condoms, a CANDY STORE NOT A DRUGSTORE.
@charliecompany34 the only mary janes i ever knew of was a little pair of black patent leather shoes when I was a little girl. Never heard of candy with that name, what was it like.
@RANGIEBABY Mary Janes (that site sells them and has a history about them) were really good (in my opinion). They were really chewy and sweet. I haven’t had them in years, but I remember it taking me a while to finish one because of how chewy they were.
@Seaofclouds Thanks, I will check that out. How fun is this? I love it.
@RANGIEBABY This really has been a fun question. So many answers take me back to past taste treats. Here’s the straight stuff on Mary Janes that are not shoes. :-)
This is going to sound a bit odd, but I loved peppermint as a kid. When Halloween rolled around, my brothers and I would dump our goodies out on the floor to haggle. You know the “I’ll give you two packets of Smarties for your Milky Way” (that’s a rubbish trade, but I’m sure my older brother would have taken it as he’s not a fan of chocolate.) I always ended up with the peppermints because nobody else liked them. I ate one pretty much every day for a couple months.
I had one recently after leaving Denny’s :) It took me right back to Hallween.
Mackintosh’s Toffee
Tootsie roll pops
Kraft Caramels
Lik’m Aid
@ETpro I found them, they look yummy. I will have to find some and see. I love chewy things better than chocolate.
@RANGIEBABY You;ll probably love Mary Janes then. I know I do, although I hadn’t see them on a store shelf in ages. :-)
@ETpro I did a search and found them at Walgreens. 2 bags for $3.00. I haven’t called any Walgreens yet to see if it is current.
@RANGIEBABY Cool. We don’t have a Walgreens close by but CVS isn’t far away. I will have to check them.
@ETpro same here. I will let you know if I find them.
@RANGIEBABY Thanks. I checked my neighborhood CVS today. They did not have them. Good luck in your quest.
Bit O’Honey, Bomino’s Turkish Taffy, Indian Brand Pumpkin Seeds, mallo cups, licorice wheels, Charms suckers, flying saucers, marshmellow ice cream cones, wax pop bottles.
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