A Sweet Birthday Gift

I know I said I'd tell you the story behind this sometime, and I have a little extra free time in my schedule at work today. No time like the present, right?

My birthday is July 4, which is a spectacular day for a party. Parades, picnics, and pyrotechnics, and the weather is usually perfect.

So this box of candy came from my sister that week, and the minute I opened it, I did a time-travel back to the early 1950's. We lived in an apartment house on West 15th Street in Minneapolis, on what seemed like a huge city block. Perfect for roller skating in those clamp-on skates that needed a skate key. We lived only a block or so from the school, so we'd go there for a pick-up game of ball. Or, better yet, we'd go across the street (with a stern warning from Mom to look both ways TWICE!) to Loring Park and enjoy the swings and other playground equipment there.

An even better treat, though, was to go to the little mom-and-pop grocery store in the basement of the building next to ours. The owner had a long candy case, all protected with glass, where you could browse for penny candy. On a really hot day, maybe Mom would give us a nickel and we'd enjoy a popsicle. What a treat that was!

But the candy? Well, take a close look at the box. If you're close to my age (70) you'll remember most of what you see. We used to get Double Bubble Gum, or Bazooka. We loved the wax lips, teeth and mustaches. We thought the candy cigarettes were totally cool. Remember Lick'm Aid? Mike and Ike? Neccos? Root beer barrels and redhots, jawbreakers, and licorice whips. It was amazing how much candy you could buy for a penny!

This gift was more than candy. It was a stroll down Memory Lane to a more innocent time. We were the children of WWII veterans, and we all liked Ike! We got the first polio vaccines ever. My arm ached for a couple of days afterward, and my mom told me it was just a tiny little bit of what it felt like to have polio.

We all got the measles, mumps, and chicken pox. Lots of kids had their tonsils out.

We played ball without any adults there to run things. No parents on the sidelines. If there was a problem, we figured it out. In the summer we got hot, sweaty and filthy and in the winter we were cold but not cold enough to want to go inside when there was a good snowball fight going on.

We knew when it was time to go home, in the summer, by how dark it was. After the street lights went on, we had maybe half an hour of playing time left. That was the time for hide and seek, which was great fun with all the nooks and crannies of the buildings around us.

It was a wonderful time to be a kid. This candy has brought back lots of great memories. My sister found it through Amazon.com. It comes from an outfit called Woodstock Candies. Try it. I know you'll like it.