Candy Girl

Over the weekend while at a candy store I came across some Spree candy in a bulk container and paused for a moment. I hadn’t enjoyed Sprees in years, as in “I can’t REMEMBER the last time I enjoyed Sprees but I think it may have been the early eighties”. Honestly, I couldn’t even remember what they tasted like other than my childhood. After standing there for a moment staring at the colorful disks, I reached for the scoop to put some in one of those “fill-your-own” buckets.

When I was six or seven, I attended the birthday party of my cousin, who’s just a year older. My aunt came up with a scavenger hunt game to keep the party guests busy in the basement—now that I’m a mom, I really want to know what the adults were doing upstairs, by the way—and we were very excited because we were told that we would be searching for candy.

Okay, now that I think about it, it couldn’t have been THAT extensive of a scavenger hunt. Like me, my cousin lived in a small townhouse. The basement was fairly tiny.

ANYWAY, I vividly remember that guest after guest found candy bar after candy bar, and I was becoming frustrated. Finally, I opened the washing machine and—WAHOO! I had to climb up onto the washer in order to reach inside, but I claimed the brand-new roll of Sprees and then did a little victory dance. Although we lived only a couple of miles apart and visited frequently, I wouldn’t be able to tell you anything about what my cousin’s bedroom looked like, but I remember finding those Sprees in the washing machine like it happened yesterday.

Candy is just like music for me, in that it has the power to take me to another place. (Sentimental much?) It may stem from the fact that, ever since I can remember, my mom has always checked dessert menus before the dinner menus when eating out. This way she can plan how much (or how little) she wants to eat for the main course. She doesn’t like to eat too much, should there be some amazing chocolate creation available afterwards. SWEETS ARE IMPORTANT TO MY FAMILY.

Take Heath bars, for example. Those chocolate-covered bars of toffee goodness were my late Grandpa’s favorite. I will grab a Heath bar on a road trip or anytime I’m feeling a little sentimental about that amazing man. Heath ICE CREAM bars? Oh my gosh. Love those.

When I was a kid, $100,000 Bars were my favorite, in taste and name. (I’m still angry that Nestlé got lazy and changed the name to 100 Grand.) I usually buy a bag of these along with all of the other kinds of Halloween candy I plan to hand out to trick-or-treaters but then hide the 100 Grands in the back of the kitchen cabinet because “Oopsie, how did we miss THAT bag? Oh well. Guess we’ll have to eat them.”

Traditional Caramello bars (as in, from the eighties, and they don’t make ’em like that anymore) remind me of Jim because every single time we would stop in a gas station to pick up candy when we were dating, he would grab a Caramello. We found the ones made by (Real) Cadbury in (Real) England over the weekend and scooped up a few, for old times’ sake.

Almond Joy has been my favorite candy bar for years. It happens to be Liz’s too. (#Twinsies) Ever since we had that moment that went, “What? You love Almond Joys? I LOVE ALMOND JOYS TOO!” we’ve been ritually snarfing down Almond Joys late at night when we travel together, and taking occasional “Look at me, I’m eating an Almond Joy. Jealous?” selfies, which we immediately text to the other. Yesterday on her train ride home she found a forgotten one in her bag that was leftover from the Los Angeles trip and she sent me a picture of it.

Indeed I was immediately jealous and actually went to my kitchen to see if I had one stashed somewhere, but my search was fruitless. Or Almond Joy-less. Sigh.

Now that I’ve reminisced about my favorite candies, I need to go grab the rest of those Sprees. What are your favorites, and why?