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.

[Central Scrutiniser]

FedMart was the west coast low budget version of Costco. The stuff was the same. Once, out of the blue, I asked my mom for a glass of orange juice at night, she dropped the glass bottle, had to get stiches and all that, major guilt, I still don't drink much OJ.

On a slightly bizzare Halloween/Dia de los Muertos note, tonite is the 14th anniversary of my mon's death. One nite on the anniversary, my sisters TV turned on by itself in her kitchen in the middle of the night, another anniversary the faucets in one of my brother's house turned on in the middle of the night. She comes back from time to time to remind us!

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I hope we all remember Space Food Sticks. Just like the astronauts used to eat.

[Central Scrutiniser]

I have a 4 CD set of all the mad magazines up to 1998, nostalgic, but I wish they had one for National Lampoon, which I switched to in High School, for the nudity and the dirty jokes...

hee hee hee

[EllaMinnow]

UGH...Space Sticks! One of the biggest disappointments of my childhood. But I remember this fondly...

[Conservababe]

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

It was called a church key.

[EllaMinnow]

Today is my son's birthday.

My mother has been gone for 4 years, but every now and then the phone rings, and no one answers when I say hello. I know it's her.

[Bob J]

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[EllaMinnow]

It was called a church key.

Yep. I hated it when my mother used the grown-ups church key to open my cans...it made everything taste like beer.

[tubebender]

We used to drink a little of the RC and then put a pack of Planters Peanuts in the bottle and drink it and then eat the peanuts out of the bottle...

[EllaMinnow]

In Phenix City, Alabama, you could get into the movies for free if you brought in 25 RC bottle caps.

[Conservababe]

The best treats were the ones we invented ourselves....like salted peanuts dropped into the small glass bottle of coke.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I remember Shak-A-Puddin. It had a gritty texture.

[tubebender]

What was the candy bar that had a marshmello filling and chocolate covering...

[EllaMinnow]

I used to make Shak-A-Puddin during "Gomer Pyle, USMC."

I had a lot of odd rituals.

[Central Scrutiniser]

Well, when folks want to get in touch with you, they will, I'm in the same house where she died, so I'll be on the lookout!

Well we made it over 100 posts before we got our popup spam for the night...sigh...

[abner]

I think sweet tarts are gone now too.

No way! They have to be around. . . .

[EllaMinnow]

Charleston Chews?

[EllaMinnow]

I'm back in the house where I grew up, and I can really feel my father's presence a lot. It's very comforting.

[tubebender]

No, these were a full size candy bar. Was it a Whizz Bar ?

[freedumb2003]

Big Hunk! Big Hunk!

Tough choice -- Smash it and have lotsa little pieces or grab it and puuuuuulllll.

I am now diabetic (I got large -- I am small now, but too late!). This thread is killing me! But it is great nostalgia!