Are you one of those folks with a sweet tooth? If you are, I’m right there with you! Sweets have long been one of my guilty pleasures, and the bane of my existence as well. I’ve battled my weight for years, so every cookie, piece of cake or candy bar I ate was calorically calculated using some delusional math which never added up to the desired effect — no weight gain.
These days, if for no other reason than I’ve become convinced sugar is not my friend, I’ve mostly given up all those tasty treats I’ve craved over the years, but it’s been hard. For some unknown reason (wink, wink), all those healthy fruits and veggies at the grocery are cheek by jowl with the bakery and its tempting displays of goodies. Everywhere you turn, your willpower and resolve are tested. Even as you stand on line waiting to pay for all the healthy food you’ve selected, there’s that confounded candy bar rack.
Candy has an interesting place in American history. During the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, sugar was prohibitively expensive for the average Joe and Josephine, so it was used primarily in dessert treats for the wealthy, and to sweeten the bitter herbal remedies made and sold by apothecaries. In 1806, one Mary Spencer made a hard lemon candy she initially sold from a push cart. Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie (still in existence in Salem, Massachusetts) traces its origin back to this enterprising woman. Early candies were all small batch, handmade confections with flavorings made from either cinnamon, cloves, rose, lilac and sometimes citrus.
The industrial revolution — and the later introduction of manufacturing equipment to refine sugar — brought costs down, leading to an increase in the number of small confectioners in every city and hamlet, laboring to satisfy the ever-growing appetite for those little bites of bliss. When machinery to mass produce hard candies and chocolate was invented, penny candies became a booming business for the little Mom and Pop corner groceries. In 1893, it was just such a machine Milton Hershey saw at the World’s Columbian Exhibition. By 1900, he was producing the milk chocolate Hershey Bars we still know and love today.
Since Mr. Hershey didn’t supply U.S. soldiers with chocolate bars until WWII came along, maybe the European allies shared with our troops during WWI and got them hooked. Or, perhaps those Doughboys were simply starved of sweets while overseas. Whichever the case, they came back from over there with a craving for candy, which was soon met by manufacturers during what can only be termed the Golden Age of candy bars starting in the early 1920s. During this time, many of the iconic candy bars still sold today were introduced: Babe Ruths in ’21, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in ’28, Snickers in ‘30 and 3 Musketeers in ’32.
My earliest candy memory involves a box of full-size Tootsie Rolls my mother left — along with little Billy — in the custody of the grey-haired and steel-rim glasses-wearing head administrator of the German Children’s Home in Washington, DC. Through some under-the-table deal Mom made, I was allowed to sit in the administrator’s expansive office every afternoon and chew on a Tootsie Roll while watching Popeye cartoons on her big black and white TV. Unfortunately, this idyll only lasted as long as that box of Tootsie Rolls, and then it was full-time in general population for me.
Throughout her life, Mom always kept wrapped hard candies in her purse, but her first love was chocolate. She made do with Hershey Bars, while secretly craving the milk chocolate and nougats of her childhood. Dad was never one to overindulge in sweets, unless it was something Mom had baked. When it came to candy bars, he was a one-trick pony. For him it was Almond Joys or nothing.
Saturday movie matinees offered us kids the opportunity to explore the candy selection displayed in a section of the counter behind glass: Hot Tamales, M&M’s, Sugar Babies, Jujubes, Good and Plenty, and Milk Duds were just a few of the possibilities to be pondered as the impatient counter person attempted to force a decision by making suggestions. Some people, mostly girls for some reason, liked candy necklaces and those nasty Necco Wafers. Yuck!
If I was short on coin and had to hit the old man up for money, I was sure to hear yet another rendition of that old, “what I used to get for 10 cents and a few bottle caps” tune, as he grudgingly forked over a well-worn Washington. It’s hard to believe now, but for a dollar I was able to buy a ticket, a small soda and popcorn — or a box of candy. A dollar only goes so far, and since I could make my own popcorn at home, I typically opted for candy and a soda.
In recent years, I’ve missed seeing those Brach’s candy bins that used to prominently sit in every grocery store. I haven’t seen one in ages, so I guess the company decided it wasn’t the most cost-effective way to sell its products. That might have had something to do with folks helping themselves to a piece or two, rather than buying an entire pound.
Hopefully the statute of limitations has run out, because I confess to having kyped a piece or two of those tasty caramels over the years myself.
W. R. van Elburg is a James City County resident. He can be reached at [email protected].