Penny Candy

Penny Candy

By All the Book Tarts

Okay, even if you're too young to remember Penny Candy, you can still play.  Believe it or not, you used to get real candy for a penny.  No lie.  Gumballs, Pixie Stix, Wax Lips, all kinds of stuff.

So on this Summer Saturday, we're going to share our favorite childhood candy, and we invite you to do the same.  What candy was worth sneaking into your room?  Which ones were off limits during the post-Trick-or-Treat trading session? 

Rebecca the Bookseller:

Fudgies.  They were kind of square, wrapped in gold foil and they were a cross between chocolate and caramel.  You could get THREE for a penny, because they were small.  I don't think they make them any more.  Also, Screaming Yellow Zonkers, which aren't really candy - they were like Cracker Jack but ten times better and why don't they make the good stuff any more?

Michele:

I don't have a favorite penny candy.  My favorite candy was (and still is) Hershey's kisses.  Pure chocolate joy in every little silver bullet.

Nancy:

My mother was really strict about candy, so I don't even have a clear idea of what penny candy is.  (Pathetic, huh?  Does my tendency to overweight start with a control issue much??)  To us, roasted peanuts were a big treat.  We picked up a warm bag after church on Sunday and munched them all afternoon.  Shells everywhere.  I did love those wax lips.  Picked them out of the offered Halloween treat bowls every year.

Elaine:

My grandparents ran a confectionery, which was the St. Louis version of a convenience store. Every weekend, they'd give me a quarter's worth of penny candy. Lord knows why I have any teeth left. I liked the buttons -- colored sugar drops on strips of paper, and Mary Janes and gumballs.

Comments

[Josh]

I loved Pixie Stix, cherry licorice whips, and Swedish fish.

I was just talking about this with Gus the Barber at the barber shop yesterday.

Hershey's, on the other hand, I am currently boycotting because it is firing everyone in town and moving production to Mexico. Screw them.

[Susan]

We had not one, but two penny candy stores in our neighborhood. When my mother sent us out to buy her cigarettes, my brother and I were always allowed to use the change for treats.

I was a pixie stix junkie, while my brother was big on the packages of cards (baseball and other) with a stick of hard bubble gum inside. Did anyone ever actually chew that lousy gum? Every once in a while, we'd splurge and split a banana flip (not candy, but close).

Both stores are long gone. My kids get their candy at the Rite Aid or the CVS. Just not the same.

[William Simon]

My all time favorite was Royal Sour Cherry Hard Candy. They came in a huge roll with an 'R' in fancy script, the rest printed in regular type. 10 to a roll, 5 cents a roll. So I guess that would be half-penny candy.

[Laura (in PA)]

Fireballs and Bazooka gum. Loved the little cartoons inside.

[Cindy]

I loved the Pixie Stix too. My other favorite is Tootsie Rolls even though they tend to pull out my fillings.

BTW Rebecca, I have seen and purchased Screaming Yellow Zonkers. They are back!!! The boxes are as crazy and fun as the old ones with the Peter Max designs. I found them at my local Walgreens drugstore in case you want to check it out.

[peach]

Tiny bottles of wax made to resemble pop bottles. Filled with sugary colored liquid in several colors and flavors. Twist of the top and drink. These days those six packs of premixed kool-aid look like larger versions of these childhood treats from the 60's.

[Rita Scott]

Our drugstore had a penny candy case that we would blow our allowance at. Fudgies were my #2 favorite. #1 was Goldbricks, little gold wrapped squares of chocolate & pecans, the chocolate liquified as soon as it hit your tongue. (they still make an ice cream topping, the original hardshell)Don't forget Turkish Taffy and Charleston Chews!
Alot of these things are still made, you need to take a couple hours to browse the candy aisle at Walgreen's. Everything is bagged now.
Fudgies, wax coke bottles, candy buttons, orange slices. (of course they may be reporting perverts in the candy aisle for 2 hours!)
Josh- thanks for the tip about Hershey. Gee, wonder why we should worry about our food supply!

[Mary Alice and Mystery Lovers]

I loved records----licorice whips wrapped around a pink ball of candy-----------would anyone even recognize them? Chicklets in little wraps of 3 or 4, and Necco wafers----long-lasting treats have always been my choice.
My all time fave are Hershey bars but I must admit to being fond of the more exotic chocolates these days. Josh, say it isn't so.

[Kerry, the Martial Tart]

The Lollipop Palace was a childhood institution. Run by two older women of whom we were all petrified (how could two women who worked in a candy shop be so sour, we wondered, not knowing then how exhausting dealing with obnoxious kids all day could be!), it was a treasure trove of forbidden delights. On special occasions, my sisters and I would be given a quarter apiece to shop with. Trying to decide what to get was, if anything, more fun than actually eating the stuff.

When I was going for quantity, I went for the pixie sticks, paper dots, Jolly Ranchers, and the house brand of big lollipops, with a side of sour apple bubblegum (packaged in long strip, kind of like Slim Jims). When it was quality, it was all about the chocolate. Three Musketeers were good value for the nickel. Nestle' made a triple-decker bar of white, milk, and dark chocolate, and Ghirardelli made a whole line of flavored chocolates (orange and mint were my two favorites).

As a teenager, I kept a stash of M&M peanuts in my room, but in retrospect, I'd be surprised if my mother, at least, didn't have that figured out. And in my first couple years of college, I liked to slip out of my dorm early on a Saturday morning (when everyone else was sleeping off the previous night's partying) and take a long quiet walk down to a little place that sold Jelly Bellies (before they were so commonly available). I'd pick up a small bag to fuel the weekend's studying.

Fun memories!

[Ladytink_534]

I loved Pixie Sticks when I was little. My Meme would take me to the drive through gasless station (it was called The Milk Jug) and I would always get the REALLY big ones. I would even cut the plastic open to lick it clean when I was through!

[Becky Levine]

I can't honestly remember a favorite candy--unless it was, even then, Junior Mints at the theater (the one in our small town where the film ALWAYS broke). But...my kid candy memory is of the little shop in Halcyon, California--an even smaller town (community?) on the edge of my small town.

For years, the town library was in Halcyon, and we would--just like the kids in Edward Eager's books--troop in there every week to check out our ten books each. (Between my sisters and I, that was 30 books and, you know, it was never enough for the whole seven days). I don't know the whys or wherefores of the whole thing, but for some reason, this was the one place my mom would drop us off and come back for us later, and the store across the street was the one place we were allowed to go by ourselves before she returned. I can see the little white house that was the library, and the street with lots of trees and no sidewalks that we would run across. I can't (??!!) see the store, but I can see the jar of long, red licorice sticks that we'd each get one of.

I don't even, really like those licorice sticks (I mean, they're cherry, aren't they?). But the independence and thrill of the journey across the street (I was a timid child, obviously!), I can still bring back.

Becky

[Luce]

I remember buying our candy from the Ice Cream Man and the challenge of racing to get our money and to catch him before he was too far down the block. Not really penny candy, but favorites none the less - Sweet Tarts - especially the extra large ones which were about 2 inches across. Also Big Hunk bars (best when frozen), Charms suckers (sometimes there was a coupon inside for a free sucker!) and Jolly Ranchers.

[laurenjharwood]

Swedish Fish. There was a store down the street from the library where all of the "cool" middle school kids would go to "study" (I cannot believe my parents thought I was that studious!) and we'd walk down to the country store (strictly forbidden, the street was rather busy) and for 50 cents, walk away with a bag of 50 fish. Cherry or Grape. My favorite was (still is) the cherry. And it was made that much sweeter by the fact that it was gained illicitly.

I also loved "Fun Dip" - three pouches of flavored sugar and one candy "stick" that you lick and stick in the sugar.

Candy cigarettes. I still love them, but what a helluva message to be sending to kids.

Fortune gum. The flavor only lasted for a half a second (it was a good flavor, though) but there was a fortune on the wax paper it was wrapped in.

Gobstoppers. Pulling them out to check what color they were never got boring.

[Annette]

Hey Peach, I had totally forgotten about those little wax bottles with the sugary liquid inside. I use to love those. I would drink the flavors I liked and then give the rest to my younger brothers and sister.

[Joyce Tremel]

Besides pixie sticks (which we were not allowed to eat in the house) we used to buy things called Flying Saucers. Not sure what they were made of, but they were like edible Styrofoam with little candy beads inside. We used to play church with them and use them for hosts!

[SusanB]

Swedish fish, Fun Dip, gobstoppers, Bazooka gum with the awful (that I thought were so great!) jokes. I remember the fun of picking out the candy, though, way more vividly than what I got! It was just so fun to stand there and think, hmmm I can get 2 more Swedish Fish for 1....
ACK! I interrupt this response to announce: I have just realized there is no cent symbol on my keyboard! Have I outlived my welcome on this world???
Guess that's a sign I better get to bed with the other old folks...
G'night-

[SusanCo]

Hey thanks for the comments about Walgreens, you never know it might help my profit sharing!! We do have some of the old time candies and if you dont see what you want, ask them to special order it for you! Thats how I get my husband's box of Zero Bars for his birthday.Opps, is this a shameless promotion or what? LOLOL
SusanCo

[Maryann]

Charleston Chews...we used to stick them in the freezer, then crack them so they'd break into little slivers. Switzer's licorice, the original black kind (now I like the red better) and Fannie May dark chocolate butter creams (not penny candy, but my dad would bring home a box every few weeks...they're still an addiction). Oh Bit-O-Honey too!
When people say childhood was sweet, they really mean it :o)

[Antigonos]

Candy corn did it for me, with the occasional Tootsie Roll. The neat thing with the candy corn was to first bite off the yellow tip, then the white bit at the other end, and only then, eat the orange center.

I went to a private school for two years, grades 5 and 6, mainly because my Mom went back to work and the school bus let me off last, at about 5:30, so I wouldn't be home alone. I got the huge allowance of $1 a week, and I'd blow it on enough candy and other junk to be able to lick, munch, and slurp during those long, long bus rides...

[Antigonos]

Candy corn did it for me, with the occasional Tootsie Roll. The neat thing with the candy corn was to first bite off the yellow tip, then the white bit at the other end, and only then, eat the orange center.

I went to a private school for two years, grades 5 and 6, mainly because my Mom went back to work and the school bus let me off last, at about 5:30, so I wouldn't be home alone. I got the huge allowance of $1 a week, and I'd blow it on enough candy and other junk to be able to lick, munch, and slurp during those long, long bus rides...

[Cinema Dave]

Mary Janes.

Too bad those hippies made a drug conotation about that candy. All those innocent memories of my youth are tainted by 1960 hippies. I mean..."Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was not about LSD, but Lucy Ball hiding in the sky because she burned her husband's meal again.

Ah...the good old days.....

[laurenjharwood]

There's a "penny" candy store on the Vineyard that I visit every summer with my kids. Granted, it costs us a fortune for the smallest bag of candy, but they have such a good time choosing things from different baskets and cannisters and filling their own little baskets with their own unique blend of candy. I hope it's one of the things they remember fondly when they're all grown up and sitting with their mouths open in the dentists office...

[laurenjharwood]

There's a "penny" candy store on the Vineyard that I visit every summer with my kids. Granted, it costs us a fortune for the smallest bag of candy, but they have such a good time choosing things from different baskets and cannisters and filling their own little baskets with their own unique blend of candy. I hope it's one of the things they remember fondly when they're all grown up and sitting with their mouths open in the dentists office...

[beachfla]

Love to go to CandyRama in Pittsburgh. Have to say Pixie Stix and Bazooka Bubble Gum were the penny candy choices of my youth.