Childhood sweet treats

right. Choc. Vanilla. Strawberry.

The strawberry was straight up garbage. The vanilla was… there. Hence, why they are just the chocolate today.

If we’re talking ye olde schoole candybars, I miss Whatchamacallits original formulation, before they added in the layer of caramel. I hated caramel as a kid and this candybar DIDN’T HAVE IT. It was great. Then they ruined it.

They now have a sibling bar called a Whoozeewhatzit, which swaps out the caramel for a layer of peanutbutter cream and the peanut crisp for a chocolate crisp. I have yet to find them in the wild for sale.

Edible paper (basically a sweetened Jesus cracker the size of a book page), most likely just for the novelty of it, but it was YUUUGE where/when I grew up. Also those grape sugar dipping sticks to dip in … more flavored sugar.

Licorice snails, American chocolate pudding that came in cans similar to cat food (exotic to this German at the time, for sure, and I don’t think I’ve seen them since).

Marzipan potatoes, Jaffa cakes w/orange, Toffifee… in short, all kinds of things I find far too sweet these days

Loukoum is called Loukoumi in Greek. Common throughout the Balkans, in Turkey, throughout most parts of the Middle East.

The Greek and Turkish stores in Toronto sell fresh Loukoumi as well as the imported type from Greece and Turkey.

Aplets and cotlets used to be advertised in The New Yorker. After seeing that ad for MANY years, I ordered them out of curiosity. Blech!

Good to know.

I LOVE white rabbit candy! now I need to go find some.

I was thinking about Freshen-Up gum, but wasn’t sure I wanted to use the nickname.
Lo and behold, you did it for me. My thanks.

I always mixed Tang triple strength, it’s much better that way.

I never liked the salt water taffy - but I did like getting cotton candy, although the sea breeze make it problematical. I guess I can’t mention the French fries, because they’re not a sweet treat …

There was also the “Seven Up Bar” with 7 different fillings. I’ve tried the Sky Bar, but don’t ever remember having tried the Seven Up Bar before it was discontinued in 1979.

https://www.snackhistory.com/seven-up-candy-bar/

I remember Heath bars. I liked them a lot, although they were my dad’s co-favorite (with Almond Joys).

Mom made 3 sweets that she knew I loved: (1) Snickerdoodle cookies; (2) a layer bar she called “Hello Dollies”; and a molten chocolate pudding cake.

For store-bought treats, I liked Look bars, See’s “Seafoam” dipped chunks, and Coffee Crisps.

Yes, the boardwalk fries were a HUGE DEAL to us as well. I forget where they came from, but we loved them.

THRASHER’s. That’s the place.

and bright red fingers and mouths betrayed our enjoyment of Kool-Aid which goes just fine by itself.

Does anyone remember the brief appearance of “Reggie” bars, named for Reggie “Mr. October” Jackson?

I learned just now that they were originally just repackaged caramel BUN bars. Huh. They WERE a lot like smaller Baby Ruths. (Babies Ruth? Like Attourneys General?)

Don’t forget Pixie Stix and Lik-M-Aid … same concept, same stains. I know this from experience.

BUN were made in the town I grew up in. I loved the maple ones.

So interesting how ice cream truck music triggers memories. The local Mr. Softee where I grew up came in the afternoon, and again after dark, the second time with what we called pot.

We also had “Good Humor”, and I remember liking “Strawberry Shortcake”

and something like “Toasted Almond”.

There was also one with milk chocolate inside on the stick, but I think it was more than 25 cents, so I didn’t get that one often. Maybe this one;

452683821955×1955 293 KB

And I liked “Chunky”

81Bl++6T16L.SL15001500×1013 203 KB

and Turkish Taffy.

I think they both had a hint of something that balanced the sweetness.

And Katydids! Now that was a luxury item.

Maybe I did like sweets! Initially I was thinking of homemade.

Oh, and Funnybones!

Yes… my girlfriend has some memory issues, but she described in such accurate detail about “Jerry” the ice cream truck driver. She talked about all the different treats he had on the truck and which ones were her favorites and on and on and on.
It was a good day for her!!

Ukranian born, but grew up in Buffalo. Not a giant Russian population. That was in NYC, where I would go a few times a year as a kid to visit extended family in Brooklyn. The treats were always from the many Russian groceries they had there (of which we had none in Buffalo). The Prince Polo bars were my favorite. Basically a giant kit kat. Closely followed by prunes in chocolate, and a Russian candy called Squirrel (in Russian), that was effectively a milk caramel covered in chocolate. Lots of yums. Oh, and my non-candy favorite sweet treat, which I have tremendous nostalgia about. The sweet cheese knishes on the Brighton Beach boardwalk. I googled and googled a few years ago and my best guess is the name of the store was Mrs. Stahl’s. No longer around.