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.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I think that it was the Space Food Stick that kept me out of the NASA Space program.

Now if it was the Space Fruit Roll Up, then I would have lifted off long ago.

[BlueLancer]

I want my Mallo-Cups!

[Dane]

What about Shake and Bake?

Did you know that that they were going to make a movie combining "Earthquake" and "The Towering Inferno". They are going to call it "Shake and Bake".

That was the biggest joke told on my school bus back in 74.

[oyez]

Oh, man! Where did you get those?

[cyncooper]

Do you remember, "Mother! I can do it MYSELF!"

Yes! LOL

[spectre]

"Try to name another candy that has "Clove" as a flavor."

I bought the whole Roll for just that ONE flavor. I still do.

sw

[cyncooper]

hahahaha

AMC had a mini "Airport" marathon a few months ago, and followed that pretty quickly with "Earthquake". It set me to hankering to see "The Towering Inferno", which is my personal favorite disaster movie, except for maybe "The Poseidon Adventure"...

[carton253]

Shake, shake, shake a pudding....

Pudding, pudding, shake a pudding...

Those are the only two lines that have stuck in my head... but I remember it like it was yesterday.

[carton253]

Space Food Sticks didn't last too long. Not fond of fruit roll-ups.

[EllaMinnow]

I wish I could remember it. It would be another thing I could use to embarass my kids.

[Dane]

AMC had a mini "Airport" marathon a few months ago, and followed that pretty quickly with "Earthquake". It set me to hankering to see "The Towering Inferno", which is my personal favorite disaster movie, except for maybe "The Poseidon Adventure"...

LOL! AMC seems to be 70's disaster movie central, these days. It seems that most of the time, when I channel surf by that channel, they have some disaster movie on.

[aruanan]

Little wax bottles filled with colored sugary liquid.

[wheelgunguru]

you mean to tell me they say yunz in TN too??

Yep. In the Cumberland mountains.

[xsmommy]

dang!

[aruanan]

Have you noticed they've totally changed the recipe for Alpha-Bits, Crispy Critters, and Honeycomb cereal? I got some not too long ago and was revolted by it. Both used to be made of something similar to the main ingredient of Cheerios but sweeter and harder. The stuff now is a less dense, yellow material. Big disappointment. Oh, remember the ads for Crispy Critters in which a fire sweeps across the landscape crisping the critters as they're driven by the flames into the cereal box?

[wheelgunguru]

Not fond of fruit roll-ups.

Those things were nasty. I remember my classmates in elementary school rolling those things with their really filthy hands. The roll-up would get darker by about a shade because of the dirt. Then they'd eat it. Yuck.

[aruanan]

How about the long, striped ribbons of candy several inches wide?

[aruanan]

Black Jack chewing gum.

[carton253]

I remember that for a quarter, I could buy a whole bag of candy. My friends and I would buy Batts suckers, Now and Laters, Bottle Caps, Lik-A-Maid, Pixie Stixs, Tootsie Rolls, and get a drink.

At the public swimming pool... We would buy frozen Zero bars and a drink for next to nothing.

This thread has been fun...

[carton253]

Well then, just sing them the theme to King Vitamin Cereal...

"King Vitamin, have breakfast with the King..."

LOL