My favorite flavor since I was a child has always been chocolate and if every food had a coating of this I would be very happy. My second choice is cherry.
When I was very little my favorite candy was the candy necklaces. They had some flavor but a not a lot, just sweet and then as I grew I discovered the Safe T Pops suckers in cherry.
Charms Cherry Suckers were a favorite of everyone at the movie theater. In the 50’s and 60’s you could get one out of a vending machine at the theater for a nickel. They were large enough that you might have some left after the show was over. They were not round but more of a rounded off triangle.
Hershey Bar and a cherry coke couldn’t be beat when the baby boomers were in High School. The Hershey bars were a nickel and could be broken into little squares and 4 of the squares fit on a graham cracker for s’mores perfectly. They were not as thick as the rectangles of the Hershey bar now. To me they tasted better and especially out of the ice cream freezer at the Soda Fountain.
Valomilk was one of my favorites; it was right up there with Hershey bars. It was a cup just like the peanut butter cups but was filled with marshmallow cream. Inside each wrapper and sitting on top of the Valomilk was a cardboard coin about the same size of the cup. If you saved 30 of them you got 10 free Valomilks free. The other soda jerk and I collected them off the tables when kids ate the Valomilk and saved them. It didn’t take long for us to get free ones.
Cherry Mash was a favorite for a lot of kids. But believe it or not it was too sweet for this chocoholic. I loved the chocolate and nut coating but would just eat all around the center ball of cherry, getting as little as I could in each bite. There was just enough to give a tiny bit of cherry flavor. I usually ended up with a pretty good size ball of the cherry left over because it was so sweet it made my teeth tingle like I had bitten down on tin foil.
Mars Bar with the almonds on the top was one that most kids wanted frozen. I liked everything but the almonds and would pick them off before eating the candy bar. For some reason when other candy bars were only a nickel in the 60’s the Mars Bar was ten cents.
Necco Wafers were a nickel a roll. The rolls were 6 inches long, same as today, and were many different colors and flavors: from cherry to chocolate and licorice. I preferred the chocolate and then liked the yellow and purple but there was only one chocolate in a package. The pink were awful because they tasted like Pepto-Bismol to me.
Today the Necco Company offers a roll of only chocolate but they are now $1.29. They are higher sometimes depending on where you buy them. I now buy just the chocolate ones that I love. They are hard to find but I have a source that will get them for me (okay it is Smith’s Market in Hutchinson) and I buy the whole box of 24. They do keep a box on their shelves to sell. The Neccos are low fat and low in calories, no guilt chocolate, what can be better than that.
Chick-0-Sticks are still around and we sold a lot of them at the drug store when I was a soda jerk, not chocolate but they were pretty good. I will still eat one now and then, but prefer the little bites they have now. That is just about enough to satisfy me and then it is back to chocolate Neccos.
Stewart Sandwiches were popular at the Soda fountain in the 60’s. They had a little oven that must have been an early relative of the microwave. The sandwiches were in a plastic wrapping and were left sealed to heat. They were warmed by an infrared light and were very hot after a minute or two.
The boys ate lots of them after ball practice; their favorite was a hamburger or cheese burger and the hot dogs. But there was also a ham and cheese and about 10 more flavors.
Government canned meat and spinach was my favorite meal at school. I wish I could taste that meat again because I loved it. The roast beef had a very different flavor. I never went hungry when it was served because most kids didn’t like it.
This is just a few candy and food favorites of long ago (well the 60’s, is that long ago?) that we loved. To contact Sandy: [email protected]
