Monday, November 3, 2008

So Halloween has come and gone... The trick-or-treating was a huge success, and Maggie's cauldrons, pumpkins and tote bags overfloweth with candy. She was a sugar freak all weekend and only got crabby a few times when she started to come down from her sugar high. Her candies of preference are Reese's Cups, Hershey Bars and Kit Kits. She scorns anything with caramel or nuts, so that's where Mommy comes into the picture, getting all of those pesky Snickers and peanut M & M's out of her way.
We trick-or-treated here on Friday evening. They only give you an hour to get to every one's door, which might seem like a lot in a town this size---but not if you're related to half the inhabitants and have to take time to shoot the breeze. I can see why my dad said he had to leave the state to put branches on the family tree---LOL. On Saturday the businesses in the nearest big little town gave out treats, so we trucked her out for that as well. Not as fun---the candy-dolers were rather stingy and seemed as if they'd rather be anywhere else but where they were, and the grown-ups were more frightening than the kids, even sans costumes. They must have drifted in from all the surrounding hollows much like they do at fair time. I swear I heard banjo music faintly on the breeze...
Our biggest laugh came from the fact that the local smoke store was passing out, what else, candy cigarettes! I'm not proud to say that I'm a smoker, but even I have to wonder how these things have made it under the radar of political correctness all of these years. Then I started to think about the bubblegum cigars and the bubble gum tobacco of my youth and wondering if they still make those as well? Marty and I had a good time reminiscing about our favorite childhood candies after Maggie went to bed (or passed out, I should say). I was a big fan of those little wax bottles with the juice inside. Bottle Caps and wax lips were also among my favorites. Neccos were good value for the money because if you rationed them out you could satisfy your sugar jones for a long stretch. I also remember eating a lot of Charleston Chew candy bars which were about a foot long at the time. Marty spoke highly of something called a Flying Saucer which he described as having the consistency of the Host on the outside and tasty candy beads on the inside. What was your candy of choice as a rug rat? I loved to trick-or-treat because that was the only time of the year you ever got that volume of candy. I can remember eating mine almost immediately, after which my more prudent little sister would sell me some of hers at highly inflated prices. LOL.
Steeler football tonight, election day tomorrow... I'm nervous about both. The Steelers are 5-2; how's your favorite team faring? I'm cautiously hopeful about the election, but whatever the results, at least we can finally send Dubya off to Texas to draw his memoirs...

7 comments:

Bridgett said...

Hmmm...my favorite candy as a kid? I ate a lot of Bonkers and Nerds. :)

And I'm like you, I love anything with nuts...Paydays have to be the greatest PMS candy bar, both sugary and sweet.

And peanut butte Twix...YUM! I have to have crunchiness in my candy.

I don't do NFL football...if I did, I'd be a Browns fan. ;) But I do love college football! Go WVU!

And I've already voted for Obama. I'm terribly saddened to hear his grandma died today.

XOXO

Remo said...

Milk Duds. I think I once stuffed about fifty of them in my mouth. I also liked Bit 'O Honey.

Texas? You didn't hear??

My Uncle George and Ted Nugent are buying West Virginia and turning it into a new amusement park called "Roveland."

Gotcha...

Lisa :-] said...

I have always loved anything chocolate, but sweettarts and smarties are high on my list, too.

I remember some of that ghastly penny candy we had when we were kids. There were those little shoe-button sugar things on the long strips of paper, and candy lipstick, and of course the wax lips and mustaches and such that you mentioned. And all the sour gumballs--sour apples, etc. I loved that stuff! Probably why my teeth are in such great shape today...

Des and Evan's big daddy said...

For me, nothing ever beat a snickers. Not very original, I know, but I loved them.

I'm really happy to get the chance to read you again.

SolitaryDancer said...

Oh my gosh all your talk about candy from years past. Sure brought back some memories.

I am surprised they are still selling candy cigarettes. Oh well, stranger things have happened.

Great post and some good memories

Deb

Cindy said...

at the store i always chose those penny candy squirrel things, when i could find them. were they called squirrel nuts? that sounds raunchy...but thats what comes to mind. they were like very hard caramel-nutty things, rectangular & wrapped in clear/white paper.

however, nothing beats chocolate. my choice as a child was Hershey bar with almonds. today it's almost anything crunchy/nutty like snickers, and i love the new TAKE 5 with the pretzel inside! best new candy bar ever.

why does your town put a time limit on trick-or-treating? never heard of that.

Tracie said...

My favorite has always been Reeses...but when I was little we used to get these papers with colored hard sugar dots in pink, blue, green and yellow on them...no clue what they were called..but I could eat miles of them...lol.


Tracie