Just needed a few cents

Garydavid

Member
Location
Massachusetts
Remember scaping up a few pennies and getting a paper bag of candy?
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When we were kids while camping , my 2 brothers & I used to walk along the beach to a little store where we could purchase a little paper bag full of assorted candies for a mere few pennies. This was our summer ritual and it was FUN!
Those memories are priceless.
 
We had a little dry goods store near our school with a circular candy counter in the center of the store.

One side of the counter was all penny candy and the other side was a fancier selection of chocolates that were boxed by the pound. It amazes me that they used to have two women at that counter selling penny candy when school let out and that they were able to make money from the kids as they hemmed and hawed over what to spend their pennies on.

We also had an old harness shop that had a very small penny candy case near the door. The store was owned by an old man that insisted on good manners. He would attempt to scare/intimidate kids by crashing his wooden cane down on the counter if they interrupted whatever he was doing. He really got a kick out of the the kids that didn't flinch or stood their ground when he tried to scare them.
 
I remember penny candies, but don't ever recall getting a bag of them, that would have been great! :topsy_turvy:
 
When I was a little kid, my folks had one of those little neighborhood grocery stores, and it had the old wooden candy counter with the glass front and shelves inside for the different kinds of candy.
Actual candy bars were mostly a nickel, and the expensive ones cost a whole dime.
My mom would put the neighborhood kids to work putting sawdust on her garden paths for 15 cents per garden cart load, and this was how most of the kids made their money to buy the penny candy.

Back then, cigarettes could be sold to the kids, as long as the parents sent them after the cigarettes with a note and the money (about 28 cents for a pack of cigarettes), and since the parent usually sent 3 dimes or a quarter and a nickel, there would be a few cents left over for the penny candy.
 
Those wax lips jogged my memory into recalling those instant soda pills. They wers definitly one of my favorites. I would hurry home with my precious purchase and run for a glass of cold water and drop a soda pill in and each time watch in utter fascination each time it transformed that glass of water into soda. It didn't really taste like soda but I didnt care, I was having to much fun on a warm summer day.:)
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