Candy

Ah sweet, sugary, colorful

c a n d y

My favorite has always been chocolate. I like chocolate by itself, on or with most anything. Does it count as candy?

Candy, the colorful kind that makes any candy store beautiful and magical, was weirdly, when I was young, something I loved, but didn’t care to eat much of. My brother was easy to bribe or buy with it. So Easter, Halloween gave me a measure of kid currency, aka power. I was often robbed, (by the same brother), but tolerated it because I somehow knew he couldn’t help himself.

Candy is nostalgic. It’s fun. Many years ago it was in very short supply (rationed), or expensive for most families which made it all the more special. There is something about a simple treat made extra special because of it being in short supply. It’s so easy to buy now, I wonder if it holds the same punch as it did back in pioneer days.

Healthy families try to limit sugar for their children. I once knew a mother who never let her kids eat any. She had a complicated system of trading toys for all her kid’s Halloween candy. Her children thought chocolate was the worst because it was brown and not pretty like other candies they collected. I wonder how that went when they grew up and tried it for the first time.

I didn’t have candy on hand when my kids were growing up. I didn’t buy soda, but if it was offered, I didn’t swoop in and protect them or anything heroic.

No one in our little family complained about regular home meals, or no dessert, but when we made cookies or ate candy, it was fully appreciated. Candy made movie night special, fun and memorable. Even making cookies was an event.

It’s hard to know how healthy that was, but there’s no taking it back now.

The seventies remain a mystery. How were people walking around smoking and eating McDonald’s and eating candy bars, (protein bars were yet to be invented), so slim? What happened in the eighties and nineties that made everyone vilify, yet worship sugar and fat and somehow ruin all it’s fun?!

I think I’d like some chocolate covered almonds, some licorice, maybe a gummy bear or two and a movie right now…