The Marriage of Nostalgia and Candy
I’m really not a “candy person.” Give me cookies and you will be my Best Friend Forever. (Yes, I can be that shallow). But candy? It typically doesn’t tempt me that much. Let it be known though, that I don’t consider dark chocolate to be in the “candy” category. That is in its own must-have category, especially if it’s mixed with mint. But I digress. When my husband, Rick, and I found ourselves in the tiny town of Sonora this week, and we saw The Candy Vault we could not resist going in. The building itself has an incredible history. Most interesting was the shop had once been a bank – thus the title of the store, I’m certain. The bank vault is still part of the store (photo courtesy of The Candy Vault FB page).
The store offers an incredible array of candy, much of it nostalgic, which is what appealed to both of us so much. We would see one candy that brought back tastes and smells and memories, and before we could fully enjoy that moment, our eyes would land on another candy that would do the same thing. We found ourselves saying, “Oh, look!” over and over again. We were like kids in a candy store. Literally. Pez, Dots, Slo Pokes, Sugar Babies, Black Jack Gum, Cinnamon square suckers, Rock Candy…. you name it. I don’t think there was anything there that hadn’t been part of our childhoods. There was a Rexall Drugstore just 3 blocks from my childhood home. I remember so well walking down there with a penny, nickel, or sometimes a dime in my hand. I remember standing in the candy aisle, taking forever to contemplate all of the goodies I could purchase with the money I clutched tightly in my hand. Sometimes the money was tied into a knot in a handkerchief so it was less likely to get lost. The candy we saw at The Candy Vault? It had all been at “my” drugstore. We left The Candy Vault with a bag full of our favorite childhood candy and a heart full of sweet memories. We bought some of the candy for our kids, some for ourselves. Will we eat all of what we bought for ourselves? Probably not. But who can resist a memory? What was YOUR favorite candy when you were young?
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Karen, who are you kidding? Pick just one!!!! I do remember when Uncle Harold came to visit, he, my cousin, my mom and I would go to Sears. Remember them? Downstairs they had a huge candy counter!!! Everything under the sun was in that counter!! We always got a double treat: we each got 1 kind of candy and then we’d go “feel the hardware”. Not sure why as Uncle Harold was not a tinkerer but I actually liked looking at all the nuts and bolts in bins. Does anyone else remember that? My candy pick then (I was in grade school) was Maple Nut Goodies. Not sure why because by my teen years and now, I don’t particularly like peanuts. Sometimes I’d get Coconut Bon-Bons and still like them. Red Hots then and now are a big fave and the list goes on and on. Probably a good thing many of those candies are now hard to obtain and some are gone forever! LOL
Ohhhh, what fun you had! Yes, I LOVED candy as a kid and it was so cheap back then that if somebody gave you a quarter you could get sick on the amount of candy you could buy if you ate it all at once!! Choosing was the very hardest part, I loved pretty much all of it! Necco Wafers, Root Beer Barrels, suckers of various sizes, taffy, chocolates, Bit o’ Honey, chocolate covered peanuts, and sooo many more!
Oh, yes, I remember Necco wafers. The chocolate and white ones were my favorites. I remember the Root Beer Barrels too. Oh, and Bit o’Honey… yeah… loved those too. LOL. Guess I ate a lot of candy as a child.
My town! Wish I had known. We love it here, but I know myself well enough to stay out of the Vault. (Brenda who took a digital class with you in San Francisco.)
Hi Brenda! I remember you well, of course! I didn’t know you lived in Sonora or I definitely would have been in touch. Next time! And you are so wise to stay out of the Vault – BUT I so glad you are familiar with you so you can vouch for how fun it is to go there! 😉
When I was a child, I lived in Norfolk, Va (Navy Brat). The 4 of us kids were pretty much on our own since my mother died when we were young. We would take a piece of screen and go to the beach and sift sand. See, when people sit down on the sand with change in their pockets, it would fall out and bury down in the sand. We 4 would sift till we got enough money to go to the store and buy candy! If we didn’t do that we would gather up enough money, take the city bus uptown and go to the theater and guess what? Buy candy of course along with soda and popcorn. OR, we would gather enough money and go to the Amusement Park and guess what? You got it! Buy candy, candied apples, cotton candy and ride rides! In the movie Rollercoaster (very old movie) the 1st rollercoaster they blew up was the one in Norfolk (They blew it up for the movie because they were tearing down the park to make way for the condo explosion! We rode that rollercoaster all for free from sifting sand at the beach! OR, we would gather enough money, take the bus to the city park/zoo, visit the animals and you got it – Ate Candy! I remember all those brands sooo well. But, honestly Tootsie Rolls were my favorite, after that Sugar Daddy’s!
What a fun childhood memory, DeLoris. And an adventure too, since you never knew what you were going to get! Thanks for sharing!
Karen, you’re right – I WAS lucky to have my mom with me that long and Dad 3 years more. I have several friends whose parents were with them until they were in their 60s (friends not parents) that I sometimes am jealous of them. Yours was a timely and nice reminder to be thankful for what I had. I hope you do try it out but seriously if you have cinnamon lovers around, do NOT count on it serving as many as the recipe says! LOL
I forgot to post here about the Cinnamon Apple Salad (I did on Facebook). I did make it. It is tough to get the red hots to dissolve. I even put it in the microwave a few times. The taste of the salad to me is good, but not great. I wouldn’t make it again because of the redhots. I much prefer a Waldorf Salad.
OK, I have to defend my fave salad. I too have trouble getting the red hots to completely melt but just carefully spoon them out when they are down to the tiny white centers. I fixed this for Thanksgiving and my almost 19-year-old guest just LUV’D it. Asked for the recipe to take home. She’s one of 6 kids, 2 parents so she’ll have to quadruple the recipe if they all also like it. We tried something new, real whipped cream to go on top. That made it even better! Like DeLoris, I like plain Waldorf salad but for me this one is about 100% better. Either way, it’s a LOT of chopping! I have wondered if heating the water for the jello on the stove might make it hotter than in the microwave (that’s how I do mine) and maybe would melt the candies more easily. Also this recipe is at least 30 years old so maybe the red hots are slightly different now! Who knows!
Thanks for the feedback, Sue! You’re right. There is a LOT of chopping in any type of waldorf salad!