The Candy Store
Do you remember as a kid going to the corner market to get candy? Well my generation lived for this because there were clear plastic bulk bins of penny candies that you could choose yourself with the little tongs. We had little brown paper bags before the plastic ones came out. Now I think these candies are a nickel each, but I’m hoping the experience is still universal. It was the perfect way for your parents to throw their change at you to get you out of the house for an hour.
You would get so excited and grab your siblings and your bikes or walk if it wasn’t blazing hot outside. You might even grab the friend from across the street if they could rustle up some money too. You would talk and laugh the whole way there and think about which candies you were going to choose and trying to sum up the total amount in your head.
The store owner knew you by name or at least by face and would greet you like you were part of the neighborhood scenery. In Vancouver, they were often Chinese. They would give you a bag and thus began the greatest sensory fulfillment of your young life. Would it be fruity mojos or green and white frogs? Gummy worms or red raspberries? Root beer pop bottles or those soft chalky yellow bananas? Mini tootsie-rolls or sour cherries? Fuzzy peaches or blueberries that turned your whole mouth blue? These were difficult decisions to make as a kid. At the end you might splurge a nickel on a black licorice pipe with the little red beaded embers around the rim that were sitting on the counter by the cash register. Who the hell ate those white nougat blocks with the dried fruit in them anyhow?
The joy heading home with your treasure trove was immeasurable. You would drop your bikes on the grass and sit on the lawn and savour each one slowly, talking about friends and school and nothing-at-all. Your brother or sister might notice you had something they wanted and try to negotiate a trade. Sometimes this ended by the bigger kid tackling the smaller kid to bite off half of it, which resulted in pained cries of, “Hey, no fair!” This is how we learned the pecking order of life.
I sincerely hope that nowadays, with increased urbanization and fears about child protection, we can still send out kids into the store to buy their own candy. It’s a ritual of childhood that fosters independence and should always be experienced without parental control. If you don’t feel safe doing it in the city, let them free at the mall to enjoy their first shopping experience with siblings or friends. The memories will last a lifetime.
