Sweet memories in a brown paper bag

Last week someone asked me how much I got for an allowance as a kid. I don’t remember getting any extra money if I recall. I believe free room and board was offered to me at the time by my parents, so that was the best deal– and I took it with no arguments.

Of course I was not penniless along with the other neighbourhood kids. Empty pop bottles were always a commodity, and if you look at it now, I think we did a better job of recycling. We loved loading up the wagon once a week and anticipating what sweet treasures we were going to get for our haul at the corner store. Maybe penny candies, or a soft drink from the old drink cooler, and sometimes even a handwritten note to buy cigarettes for my father was tucked in my pocket.

The small neighbourhood stores were the original convenience stores and we had Mayhews on Oliver Street and another one on the left a bit farther down. They usually did not carry a wide variety of goods but they had the basics, and children could safely be sent out for milk, bread or a can of soup without having to go all the way up to Bonneaus at the top of the Albert Street hill. I would go to Mayheu’s corner store and with 10 pennies come out with a paper bag full of potato chips, marshmallow filled mini ice cream cones, wax lips, and Popeye candy cigarettes.

My favourite penny candy was a pair of big red wax lips. Every summer day I would sit on the edge of the Cowansville public pool kicking my legs in the water with the wax lips that were slowly melting in the hot sun. If they were not available, I would buy the little wax bottles and bite off the top and drink the liquid that was probably heavy on Red #49 food colouring. The bottles were made of edible wax, and all everyone did was chew on them forever and then spit them out after the juice was consumed.

Buying penny candy wasn’t just about the candy– it was all about the experience. It was about racing into the store to gaze at the shelves of what seemed like a million choices of candy. It was seeing the store owner grab a brown paper bag and trying to fill it to the brim with jawbreakers or black balls. Those store owners had the patience of Job and gave us all the time we needed. Everything seemed to be “two for a penny”, or “three for a penny” so the decisions made were often our first lesson in personal financial management. The right decision could fill the little paper bag that our purchases were stowed in

Our favourite hangout away from my grandmother’s eyes was Dion’s lumber yard next door to my home. “Smoking” on our candy cigarettes, my friends and I would sit on the top of the piles of lumber and have earth shattering conversations about why I cut my bangs so short like Bette Davis. We soon skipped speaking about the prospects of picking wild strawberries in the field and hoped the ill- tempered farmer was not going to come out and shoot at us with rock salt.

Candy today seems to have been taken over by power drinks and bars that have just as much sugar and caffeine in them as our penny candy did. A serving of Gatorade contains the same amount of sugar as twelve pieces of candy corn. No longer can a child go into a corner store and find the delights we had as kids. Today, besides the dollar store candy, the candy companies have designer lines to entice baby boomers into buying candy again- and not for a penny.

Although you may occasionally find a small store or a gum ball machine that will still sell you a small piece of candy most candies have increased in price quite a bit since my day. What the heck is ‘fun size” chocolate bars anyways? There is nothing fun about having less candy, and now at an older age its like eating a cloud of diabetes.

There are no more brown paper bags or “trusting” proprietors. No more sugar sprinkled comic book pages and no more testing the merchandise. The next best thing is sadly ordering online at the retro candy companies and we can always reminisce. No more hiding in the closet anymore eating candy alone away from your siblings. I wish the moments we had could have lasted forever as sometimes all anyone needs is just a Rum and Butter Life Saver to keep us afloat for the day.