[Rose in RoseBear]

When I was in junior high school (middle school to you young'uns), the school administration opened up a second bokroom as a store. They sold popular candies and snacks from this (probably) highly illegal store --- M&Ms, Lik-M-Aid Dips, All-Day Suckers, etc.

Shut up, dwarves!

But by far the most popular snack was a heinous pairing, a combination of two things that should never have been combined. They sold pickles, those huge sour kosher dills that come in a big jar:

The store also sold Grasshopper Candies --- candy sticks six inches long and the circumference of a pencil. There were a lot of flavors, but I favored lemon, lime, and grape.

Sick children that we were, we would unwrap the Grasshoppers, bite one end off a brand-new pickle, and push the Grasshopper down into the middle of the pickle. If you got the right pickle, you could bury all but the tail end of the Grasshopper in the middle of the pickle.

And then, we would lick, savoring the mix of sour and sweet. Some people would salt the candy-stuffed pickle's surface, for another tastebud experience. This evil lasted all day, and sometimes we would even take them home, where our parents would throw them out.

Oh, the evil of the Seventies!

[SuziQ]

sometimes we would even take them home, where our parents would throw them out.

Mean old parents!!

Do you remember when they sold those giant dill pickles at the movies, sitting on a bed of shaved ice? Those things were HUGH and only cost $.05!!

I've never liked kosher pickles; something odd about the flavor. Maybe it's the garlic with the brine, I don't know, but it is almost impossible to find just plain old dill pickles up here. They're either kosher, or garlic, or something or the other. Every now and then, Vlasic has a particular kind I like. When I find them I'll buy several jars. I like em in chicken salad.