Sweet-Tooth Fix For Baby Boomers: Nostalgic Candy

wlky ^ | 10-30-03

[wheelgunguru]

Baby Boomers can't seem to grow up, at least when comes to their taste in candy.

People who want to celebrate Halloween with wax lips, Gold Mine Gum and other hard-to-find candies from their youth are finding more companies catering to the middle-age sweet tooth.

The Woodstock Candy company in upstate New York is doing a booming business, catering to the boomers' sweet-tooth.

They have retro goodies like wax lips, candy cigarettes and those candy buttons on paper. But the company is up-to-date in marketing.

Boomers can buy their sugar fix from the Web site WoodstockCandy.com.

There's also a bow to the political correctness of the 21st century. Candy cigarettes are now called candy sticks. But some old-time favorites still provide a puff of sugar when you blow through a hole in the middle.

Bridget Sweeney-Bell says people are usually thrilled to find candy from their childhood is still available. She says candy buttons, Nik-L-Nip and candy cigarettes are big sellers this year on her Web site.

Tom Scheiman stocks 2,500 items in his Cleveland candy store, 200 of which he classifies as "nostalgic."

Nostalgic candy has become a niche in the $24 billion U.S. candy business, in part because the biggest candy makers like Wrigley and Pennsylvania-based Hershey have concentrated on fewer items, especially chocolate.

That means wax lips and Atomic Fireballs can be hard to find on store shelves.

[katnip]

In the 50's, you could get them on a licorice belt. When you ate the candy dots off, then you could hit your siblings with the belt (!).

LOL.

[katnip]

The only way to consume them was to take the Fizzie in little chunks directly on your tongue

We used to have contests to see who could keep a whole fizzie on their tongues the longest. Only when Mom and Dad weren't home of course.

[TheGrimReaper]

Nothing has ever quite hit the spot like an RC Cola and a Moon Pie......

[EllaMinnow]

I've been considering selling Moon Pies on ebay.

[katnip]

How about Funny Face powdered drink mixes.

Rootin Tootin Rasberry, Jolly Olly Orange, Goofy Grape, Choo Choo Cherry...

[185JHP]

Clark Bars?

[EllaMinnow]

How about Funny Face powdered drink mixes.

I used to drink it out of my Batman glass.

[katnip]

And Flintstones glasses too that originally contained grape jelly.

[Central Scrutiniser]

Waaaay back in time (for me) probably around 1968 or 1969, there was an old woman a few blocks away who turned her garage room into a candy store. My older brothers and sisters took me there a few times (I was 3 or 4) and we'd go and bang on her door and eventually she would come out, unlock the door and unveil the candy. I'd point to what I wanted, and pull some random coin out of my pocket, and she would make the change for me. I remember the little flying saucers that were made of a tasteless styrofoam kind of shell with little candies inside, and the rolls of paper with the sugar dots on them. I still live in the neighborhood, I drive by the street, I can't exactly remember which house was hers.

Today? Try selling candy to kids out of your garage, you'd be in jail damn quick...

[EllaMinnow]

Remember Hi-C in big old cans that had to be opened with an old-fashioned can opener?

[katnip]

Yep, always tasted like tin.

[meowmeow]

Did you ever eat dry jello out of the box? It was like pixie stix only there was so much more!

I have a tummy ache from my Bottle-Cap binge tonight. Can't eat 'em like I used to. :(

[katnip]

Wow, I never thought to do that!

We did eat the frozen concentrated orange juice out of the cans though. Yum.

[Central Scrutiniser]

Hi-C? Luxury! We had to drink the Fed-Mart version!

[EllaMinnow]

Oh, Geez...what's Fed-Mart?

[meowmeow]

My mom bought Tang religiously - even though we all hated it. I guess it must have been cheaper than kool-aid. I can feel that chalky sensation in the back of my throat just thinking about it...ack!

[Merdoug]

Oh yeah! I remember them! Like sweet-tarts! Come to think of it, I think sweet tarts are gone now too.

[djf]

Saw them in a store a few days ago. About once a decade they make a special nostalgic run. Bought a couple packs, and now wish I got more.

[meowmeow]

Remember those packs of powdery stuff that came with two white candy sticks and you dipped the sticks in the stuff (Dippin' Sticks? That sounds kinky now).

Dippin stuff, fireballs and those wax bottle things and a Mad magazine on a chilly, rainy summer day in Western PA, when global cooling was going to kill us all if the Soviets didn't do it first. Sweet memories of childhood.

[Merdoug]

Funny how some candy has been around forever: like Baby Ruth and "Zero". Asked an older friend of mine if zero bars were around when he was a kid (50's) but he couldn't remember. The name sounds like something from the early space age sixties (like "eatin' my zero bar while listening to telstar, building my space rocket model and watching mercury blast off"):)