Happy Valentine’s Day to us all, and I hope you are having the kind of Valentine’s Day you prefer! I brought Fun Dip classroom valentines to work, feeling a little silly but then glad I’d done it. One coworker said “Ah, this brings me back to my youth!” and we had a pleasant talk about our childhood candy experiences.
We both feel, without going so far as to look into it and find out, that candy was relatively cheaper in our childhood than it is for current children. She remembered being easily able to buy candy, chips, and a soda with pocket change. I remembered candy bars being 25-40 cents, depending on my age (25 cents more toward elementary school, 40 cents more toward high school), and if I bothered to check those figures or check an inflation calculator I’m guessing that doesn’t translate to the $1.59-2.29 I see now, but maybe it does. We also remembered the wide variety of items available in the 1-cent, 5-cent, 10-cent range, and wondered if those things are still sold in stores we just don’t happen to shop at (or maybe we’re not looking in that section anymore): little boxes of Mike & Ike’s, Lemonheads, Boston Baked Beans; packets of two Dinosour Eggs or a single Giant Chewy Sweetart; Tootsie Rolls; Tart ‘n’ Tinys; a Sweetart lollipop made of two colors of pressed powder; Swedish fish, which we both remembered being sold UNWRAPPED IN BINS FOR PEOPLE TO PICK UP WITH THEIR HANDS AND THEN PUT ONTO THE BARE COUNTER. I myself shopped at a store that was endlessly patient with children endlessly browsing the candy; they’d put our items into small brown paper bags and fold over the tops, and I remember the Treasure feeling of carrying that home.
Where was I? Oh, yes: Valentine’s Day. I gave a Fun Dip packet to my boss, even knowing she avoids dyes, because it seemed like the other options (giving her something different from everyone else; not giving her anything; rethinking the whole idea and trying to customize a 25-cent valentine to each coworker’s preferences) were bad options, and because after spending some time hand-wringing those options I thought “Wait: this is a silly 25-cent workplace valentine, anyone who doesn’t want to eat it can toss it directly into the trash and it doesn’t matter one bit, it is not worth anywhere near this level of thought”—and, as it turned out, she seemed unaccountably pleased by it, almost touched? Reminding me that is is hard to know what small thing can etc. etc.
I have put out the giant Hershey Kisses for the two Home children, along with some assorted candy left over from making care packages for the Away children. I have filled a heart-shaped bowl with more leftover candy. I put a pack of heart-shaped Reese’s peanut butter cups on Paul’s desk. I am wearing a heart t-shirt, and heart-patterned Converse high-tops. I have some See’s to eat. Tonight we are going to watch Valentine’s Day, a movie I noticed at the library and, considering how much I like an ensemble cast, can’t believe I’ve never seen. It is…not well-reviewed.
The high school handed lollipops taped to a little “we appreciate our (school) parents!” into the car windows at drop off this morning so I can agree with the surprisingly touched feeling of your boss that doesn’t eat dyes. I don’t eat lollipops, I don’t like lollipops, and yet I am surprisingly pleased to have been handed a lollipop.
Also Elizabeth pointed out that the basket the school counselor was carrying the parent lollipops in was the same basket that said school counselor used to confiscate cell phones yesterday during the “follow the rules already” crackdown.
This is hilarious, and I’m just chiming in that our school is also cracking down with a new pouch called “yondr” that the kids have to put their phones in.
I just walked around my library handing out fun dip to my coworkers! Thanks for the idea, it was fun.
Oh, I liked Valentine’s Day, just like I liked Love Actually and the Mother’s Day one and the New Years one. It’s not Capital A ART but it is a pleasant little film and I hope you enjoy it!
I’m wearing a pink checked shirt I never wear and my BELOVED HUSBAND said it looked like I was going to a hoe down, so that was romantic.
Well it sounds like an adorable and appropriate shirt to me.
Aww, I love the reminiscing about candy from our childhoods! We had a corner store that had 1 cent tootsie rolls, 5 cent jawbreakers and fireballs, and 10 cent packs of candy cigarettes. The candy cigarettes were my favorite! 25 cents for a candy bar sounds about right, too.
My youngest entreated me to make heart-shaped grilled cheese for dinner, which I often do on Valentine’s Day but wasn’t going to until they asked and then I decided if it was important to them I should. They also made a special dessert (white chocolate-raspberry cheese cake bars with Oreo crusts) we’ll have tonight. I’ve got candy for the kids I will give them at dinner.
My wife and I are going away the last weekend in February and we decided that was our present to each other, so I don’t expect anything else from her (and that’s plenty!).
I am wearing red socks with black hearts on them. I think that covers my observation of the day.
I was at the gas station (Kwik Trip) recently between appointments and wanted a candy bar. It was sad that they were all around $2.19 and so small. I went with the pack of Rolos because at least I wouldn’t gobble them all up at once and I was happy to find the final two in my purse a week later because I’d forgotten them.
In my childhood on a Friday, my Mum would give us a £1 coin and we would be able to get a couple of things/bars from the sweet shop. We also had the penny sweets in a big open container that you could grab out of.
Based on your previous post about the giant Hershey’s Kisses, I added two to my recent grocery pickup order. I then forgot they were in there and my kids (10 and 6) found them while they were putting the groceries away. They were so, so pleased! Thanks for the suggestion, because even though I screwed up the surprise, they were a hit! I hope you continue to have a good day!
This surprise discovery might have the added bonus of children who will always be eager to unload the groceries just in case it happens again!
This made me remember the Brach’s candy display at the grocery store, where you could “pick-a-mix” and buy by weight. It was a GREAT trip when Mom let us do this.
Yesssss! We used to have summer treasure hunts when my cousins would come visit. My older sister was a great poet and would write little rhyming clues for us, and my mom would buy the bulk Brach’s candy – jelly bean nougats! neopolitans! butterscotch disks! cinnamon gummy bears! multi-fruit flavored hard candies! – and I would get to help sort it and divide it up into bags for everyone that would then be hidden as the “treasure” at the end of the hunt.
I am no film snob but Valentine’s Day is, indeed, a… very not good… film. It’s oddly soulless for a movie entirely about love! But I very much hope you enjoy it, maybe it’s better than I remember.
I’ve had to work away today (my kids are off school, I’ve been away for two days and I am miserable about leaving them) and I won’t get home until they’ve been asleep several hours. But I left them each a bag of little goodies, like candy and little paper tissues with hearts, and stickers, and a love note each. And my husband snuck a card and some chocolates into my work backpack which was *extremely* cute and thoughtful. Both the card and chocolates have dogs on, I have also bought a dog card for my husband. So it seems our shared love language is now, basically, our dog…
Your work valentines sound perfect! I love the candy reminiscences. I have very fond memories of a convenience store where my best friend and I would go spend our allowance every day during the summer. They had bulk Sour Patch Kids, one for a penny. Which meant you could get 100 Sour Patch Kids for a dollar!!!! What a deal! You probably get, what, twenty??? in a package now for $2.50? I loved those 25 cent boxes of Alexander the Grape and Lemonheads and whatever the apple flavor was called.
It is also helpful to think back on those days from the perspective of being a parent — I ate SO MUCH CANDY and yet I survived and became an adult who (frequently) eats vegetables. Maybe I need to cut my candy-holic kid a little slack.
Oh yes, the bins of candy that you could just buy by the piece. EWWWWWWW. Well, I guess no one died. Also, at the time I’m thinking, I would buy cigarettes for my mother and our neighbour, and I was probably like six or seven, so *shrug* THE 80S WERE A DIFFERENT TIME. Oh, remember Bazooka Joe bubble gum? I feel like it was five cents a piece.
Nerds candies were new at the time I am now thinking of, and it was A Big Deal. I still have a special place in my heart for them.
I found Valentine’s Day fine. It’s not some great movie, but an enjoyable one. I didn’t love every couple, but that’s sort of the point with that type of movie.
I remember candy bars being 50 cents, which tracks since I think I am a tiny bit younger than you. The thing I find crazy is the cost of an individual bottle of pop (soda for those of you not in the midwest ;) ). Over a $1.50 in a gas station. $6 US DOLLARS at a sporting event. I’ve found that my old woman trait will be talking about the price of things. I don’t even think it’s bad that things cost more than they did 20 years ago, but I find it fascinating.
Happy Valentines Day!
I am clearly older than you (or was buying candy bars myself earlier, or both), as I can remember feeling outraged when candy bars went from costing $.10 each to costing $.15 each. Which in my defense was a 50% increase! 50%! I don’t remember how old I was, but guessing 5, I have just plugged numbers into a CPI calculator and can tell you that $.15 in 1974 is $.99 now.
Like @Jenny above I am also astounded by sodas, but not so much the cost — I remember as a kid my dad (who was the only household member who was both interested in and allowed to drink soda) would buy a bottle of Coke, which was 1 liter (quart?), made of glass, had a screw-top lid, and lasted … weeks? Certainly no less than a week. Every now and then he would pour himself 1 glass over ice and drink it and that was all (it must have gone flat over time?). Whereas now a 1-liter bottle is treated as a single serving. Yikes. (But don’t get me wrong, my parents also drank several whiskey sours before supper most nights, so we’re not necessarily talking about healthier era, or household!).
I used to stop at a corner store on my way from from middle school. For 25 cents you could buy a little brown paper bag, the top neatly folded down, containing 25 Swedish fish.
The part that really blows my mind is that the $0.25 apparently covered not just the candy, but also paying the employee to count out the fish!
I don’t remember anything about what candy cost when I was younger, except that we had a penny candy store in town where a lot of pieces of bulk candy were just a penny. We lived outside town, so didn’t get to go more than a few times that I recall, sometimes with a friend or visiting relative, but I do remember that the proprietor was … not a nice lady. In a, why would you open a store targeted chiefly at children if you cannot be kind to children? kind of way.
Upthread I talk about the Brach’s candy we used to have for treasure hunts, but my other candy reminiscence was visiting my cousins, who lived within walking distance of a water park, over a couple of summers. We would walk to the park, swim and slide for a bit, and then go to the concession counter and get Jolly Rancher sticks that we would then suck on for the rest of the afternoon.
This got me thinking about candy and other things I used to buy in junior high when I had some babysitting money burning a hole in my pocket. Laffy Taffies and Skor bars were my favorite It was also so fun to get lip gloss and eye liner from the pharmacy make-up section. It makes me wonder about the adolescent girls in Sephora buying $60 face serum. Maybe babysitting is lot more lucrative now?
I absolutely remember being able to get various candies for a penny or two. In fact, it was called penny candy. There was one store in our town that was fairly dedicated to it (or at least that is how it felt to me). I think it may have also been a pharmacy but not 100% sure. I also remember having ‘5 and dime stores’ and those remind me of the dollar stores we currently have in my area. Another favorite store was a ‘general store’ and Woolworths because those would have penny candy and also some limited food.
Currently, I’ve been able to find candy for 5 or ten cents in our party stores (Party City) or a store called ‘5 below.’ Although that has slowly become 5ish to 10ish dollars. All of your dollar stores have become 1.25 or ‘Dollar Plus’ stores. It seems to have started happening slowly. More recently it has happened more blatantly and without any sort of warning or explanation..
Your Valentine’s day sounded extremely pleasant. I know I would be happy to have received a fun dip from you. :)