Brands from the Past: Candy Counter Customer Stories Contest Winners

In January, we asked you to share memories of your favorite candies or old-time candy counter. We hope you enjoy reading the top five.

By Cheryl Cowden, Mechanicsburg, PA

"On a Saturday afternoon, Dad would give my older brothers 25 cents to go to the corner store to buy penny candy. This was a treat for us. When my brothers got home we would go out on the front porch and eat candy, talk and sing. I remember shoe string licorice, Mexican hats, red hot dollars, BB Bats, taffy, peppermint balls, lemon drops and root beer barrels, candy dots on paper strips, wax lips (usually at Halloween), Sen-Sens, lollypops, fireballs, etc. These were simpler times but the memories I'll always remember."

By G. Royce Oswald, Mercer, PA

"When I was old enough, I'd say about 9 or 10, some 50 years ago, I would sometimes be allowed to ride my bike down to the corner gas station. There was always three or four of us. You would think it was the adventure of the ride that had us going someplace. But no, it was the penny candy and gum that would lure us.

"I had to work for every penny, nickel, dime and quarter I spent. It never was much and I never meant to spend it all but most times I would. There were so many tempting goodies. I would have it all in a small bag wrapped around the handlebars of my bike for my trip back home. There were the gumballs, jawbreakers, suckers, candy bars—you name it, it was there.

"I can still remember the unique odors that exuded from that little store. The red candied apples had a smell of their own. Sometimes when I'm in one of these "old country stores" I can still smell those all so familiar smells. And, without fail I spend my pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters until a much older self will say "enough already." But it was so much fun remembering. Penny candy and gum had one more time worked its magical spell on me even after 50 some years."

By Maggie Angey, Gaithersburg, MD

"When I was a little girl, I lived with my grandparents. Everywhere they went, I went. My grandfather, Ray, used to walk up the hill to town every week to take care of any business he had to conduct. There was an ice cream parlor that had a candy counter, and the drugstore had a long counter with a glass front. I could see all the candy neatly divided into bins and was allowed 1 penny for candy. I nearly always got huge red gumballs. They were bigger than the end of my thumb and made my eyes water (cinnamon).

"I adored my granddaddy, walking with him was fun, but his waiting patiently for me to pick my penny candy was such a gift. No nagging, no 'hurry up,' just calmly waiting and chatting with the storeowner. And, once in a while, he'd get a gumball too.

"We'd show up back home with one cheek apiece stuck out like mumps (only it was the gumball) and my nana would look at her husband and just shake her head. But Ray was a smart man. Nana loved those vanilla domes covered with chocolate (in those days the real thing) and Ray would bring her a vanilla candy carefully put into a little white sack. Then he got a kiss on his cheek and a loving smile and 'thank you, father' from his wife."

By John Geyer, Corvallis, OR

"The little licorice drop with the diamond inscribed on it was my favorite candy. They were three for a penny in Ernst's Candy Store, which I walked by every day to and from school.

"When I was in the first grade (ca.1934) the school decided to give us kids a lesson in thrift. So each of us was given a cardboard tube bank and we were instructed to bring a penny each day and put it in the bank until we all had a dollar.

"So for 100 days I had to walk past Ernst's with a penny burning a hole in my pocket. One hundred times I walked past those licorice drops without fail.

"When all the kids had their dollar we took a class trip to the local Farmer's and Merchant's Bank to open a savings account. The mayor was there; the local newspaper took pictures. It was a very big event for a first grader.

"A month after receiving my bankbook crediting me with the funds to afford 300 licorice drops the bank went broke and I was wiped out. I didn't use a bank again until I was in my thirties."

By John Magers, Lakeside, CA

"The year was 1944. The war was still raging in Europe and the Pacific. I was 8 years old. Somehow a neighbor kid had gotten hold of a whole box of Fleer's double bubble gum (you know, the one with the comics inside) and was selling it for the unheard of price of 25 cents each.

"I went to his house to just look at this delectable treat as it had been before the war the last time I had tasted "Double Bubble." Everything was rationed and where he had come across a whole box, (48 pieces) he wouldn't say. Of course, he was chewing on a piece and the aroma of that gum was enough to make me drool. He let me read the comics and actually touch a piece but he wouldn't give me one.

"Nothing would do but I had to have a piece of that gum. I ran home and told my Mother of this wondrous find and absolutely begged her for a quarter. Of course she refused, as money, even 25 cents, was very tight in those days. No matter my pleading and promising to do ANYTHING, she would not give in. Fleer's bubble gum was selling, when you could get it, during the early war years, for a penny and my Mother just didn't think that a quarter for something that was worth one cent was a good bargain. No matter my crying, pleading, threatening to run away from home, she stood firm. I can't tell you how crushed I was.

"A year or so after the war ended and things once again became available, I found my gum in the 5 and 10 cents store. I bought 6 pieces and ran home with visions of this treat, of chewing that delicious gum and blowing bubbles, dancing in my head. I very carefully opened the long awaited treat, untwisting the ends to get to the round, piece of gum. Ah, the smell. Yes, it was good, no it wasn't as good as the anticipation."