I saw a penny in the parking lot last week and stopped and picked it up. Most people won’t. A penny is looked upon as nuisance these days. Few will bend to pick one up and many toss any excess pennies in a bowl beside the cash registers.
Boomers, though, can remember back when a mere penny bought tons of pure joy. Those were the days of penny candy.
When I lived in Beckley, WV, my parents bought a small house and moved to Jennings Street, meaning I would have to change schools from Institute Elementary to Lincoln Elementary. That meant I would have to leave my close friend Billy Richmond behind and make new friends, always a scary thought for an eight-year-old. But friends I made and I also discovered a treasure chest for those with a sweet tooth. Within a block of Lincoln Elementary was an old store that sold general merchandise. It was a dark store with creaky wood floors. An elderly lady managed the front desk and also had an apartment upstairs. The store sold canned goods, a few dairy products, fresh bread and candy! Especially candy and most of it was a penny apiece.
A carton of milk at the school cafeterias was two cents in those days and often parents would dish out a nickel before school for a half-pint of milk. That meant there were three pennies left over if you didn’t get two cartons of milk and that meant a stop at the old store on the way home.
The choices were gut wrenching. Bubble gum was at the top of the list. There were two types of bubble gum to consider –Bazooka and Double Bubble. Double Bubble tasted best and made the best bubbles, but Bazooka had comics and riddles inside, so it was a tough choice. Sometimes, if I had several pennies, I’d get a piece of each. Another favorite was Mary Jane Peanut Butter Candy. It was chewy and delicious and sometimes, if you took your time and savored the candy, one piece would last the whole walk home.
Other primo choices in the candy counter included Tootsie Rolls, Black Taffy, Candy Necklaces, Dum Dum Suckers, BB Bats, Kits Kats, Milk Chocolate Copper Pennies, Fruit Lollipops, Bannana Split Candy Chews, Bit-O-Honeys, Black Cows, Jaw Busters and licorice sticks in a big jar, either black or red. I loved the red.
The piece de resistance of all candy counters was an Atomic Fireball. These babies were so hot they’d leave blisters in your mouth. Sometimes, on a dare, we’d put one in our jaw during class and try to make it all the way through without taking it out.
But we were tough, us Boomer kids. Atomic Fireballs helped us prepare for the really challenging situations in our coming lives. In the end, most of us turned out okay and we owe it all to Penny Candy.