candy stores

[peter lena 8,583]

growing up in new York city , something that was very common , like on every street corner were , CANDY STORES . there was penny candy , 5 cent candy and a fountain service , to make you a coke or an " egg cream "  basically vanilla or chocolate syrup seltzer water , frizzed , like ice cream soda , without ice cream , 12 cents. deposit bottles were 2 cents , so if you managed to scrounge up maybe 25 cents , you were living large , 5 cent candy bar , 10 cents in penny candy , 5 cent bag of chips , 5 cent coke . we also had the last , of the corner marble counter drug stores , that was amazing to see , counter service , everything in polished Nickle and marble , one of the few a/c units in the upper doorway , always ice cold , on a hot summer day . slush box soda cooler, guaranteed instant headache on a hot day ! when I look at a $ 1.39  for a candy bar today , it instantly brings me back , ww2 vets everywhere , do anything for you , the smell of oiled leather in a sporting good store , lots full of  NOS  military surplus , boy scouts , we had navy vets , show us how to purchase and prepare food , think its time for an ice cream soda , pete  

[roadapples 6,983]

Remember them well...

[Ed Kennell 38,026]

...and  $0.19 / gallon "Good Gulf" gasoline.          Thanks for the memories Pete.

[WHX?? 48,790]

Took pop bottles in for penny candy.... 

[peter lena 8,583]

ED , the gas was prices were good too, I can remember pumping fuel oil for  12 cents , people were in a panic when the talk of going to 13 cents ! was just the start of increases . we would fill tanks at navy housing , nonstop, that was before the SCOVILL SWIVEL LINE VALVE , pump feed would practically pull off the tank , not fun , pete

[Stormin 9,981]

 Same over here. Prices go up and value for money gets less.

[pacer 3,168]

Most of my spending money came from either return "coke" bottles (down here in the south all soft drinks are cokes) or scrounged scrap metal at a penny a pound -- I most always had 40-50 cents in my pocket.............. sigh! geez what good memories!!

[SylvanLakeWH 25,493]

Around here it was Sanders hot fudge sundaes...!

 

[JAinVA 4,619]

Always spending hot, muggy summer days bottle hunting by bike.

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,296]

Has anyone noticed the number of names that "coke bottles " have. So far I have seen "pop" , "coke"  and in my neck of the woods " soft drinks" no matter the brand and Mrs. El Camino calls them "soda" .

[SylvanLakeWH 25,493]

 

 

[Lee1977 6,647]

We just had one Esso service station out in the country where I lived, Cokes were a Nickle, candy bar or a small cup of ice cream. You really did pump your own gas with a handle up into a glass container marked with the gallons .

That service station is long gone.  We lived 6 or 7  miles from 3 small towns,  Got to town ever so often to see the steam trains go through.  The main North  South line runs through all three. We have two country stores now, but one is closed as the owner died.

We also had one elementary school about a mile away and it's still there. I still have 4 1/2 acres of my grandfathers farm. 

 

[pacer 3,168]

3 hours ago, elcamino/wheelhorse said:

Has anyone noticed the number of names that "coke bottles " have. So far I have seen "pop" , "coke"  and in my neck of the woods " soft drinks" no matter the brand and Mrs. El Camino calls them "soda" .

 

Yes, that is a bit of odd --- Americana?? lingo, with soft drinks having such a variety of names. I live in La, and as said they are all 'coke', but next door in TX they seem to prefer 'soda' and from my visits to Mich to see my son I hear 'pop' a lot.

[Mickwhitt 4,593]

When I was a boy,  a mere 50 years ago, we had a different money system. Pounds shillings and pence. It was ended when I was six but I still recall being given an old penny to buy sweets (we always called them spice).

Clutching this huge lump of copper in my hand I could point to 

Each slot in a large tray under glass containing a massive array of wrapped sweets. The shopkeeper would pick each sweet I pointed to until I had reached the limit, not sure how he calculated how many spice I could have but it seemed to depend on size. You can have two of those or one of those kind of thing.

The sweets would be placed in a paper bag and handed over in exchange for my coin. This was a penny mix and was the staple way of delivering enough sugar into my young bloodstream. 

White chocolate mice, black jacks, fruit salad,  refreshers,  strawberry laces, sherbert fountains, dainty bars, Cowan Highland toffee were all in there. 

Or you could buy a quarter of sweets, a with paper bag with weighed out sweets from shelves full of glass jars. Midget gems, wine gums, liquorice torpedoes, Yorkshire mixture to name a few.

Lastly there were rainbow crystals, jars of pure granulated sugar dyed in different coloured layers. Now that gave you a sugar rush. 

There was a thing called American cream soda, bright pink sweet powdered sugar. We eat it by licking your finger and dipping it in the bag, sucking the stuff from your finger. It tasted odd, not as nice as any of the other stuff, but we would buy it because it was American and so very posh. We thought soda was pop over in the US so we couldn't understand ours being powder. 

Our pop only came in large bottles, bought from the pop man who delivered door to door from a truck. There were no small bottles like these days.

Oh and I remember the rag and bone man coming round on a horse and cart, if you took out old clothes you would get a balloon in return. 

Halycon days chaps, halycon days...

 

[ebinmaine 67,292]

As late as the mid 90s in the home town of much appreciated Starrett tools we had a very old school Bruce's Pharmacy. 

At that point it was owned and operated by what I believe was Bruce's daughter Diane. 

 

That was a small store that had a 40s or 50s vintage counter with swivel bar stools and a variety of shakes or frappes which were 2 VERY different things based on thickness. No one in their right mind could get a frappe through a straw but you bet we tried. 

 

After I moved to Maine in 2000 that store stopped as a pharmacy and became Bruce's Browser for a while. Focus was much toward things to read which were then made of paper. Remember paper??

 

I'm not at all sure what's there now...

 

 

Local carbonated drinks in North Central Massachusetts and here in Maine are interestingly referred to by what the label reads. 

IE:

Coke product is called Coke. 

Pepsi product is called Pepsi. 

And the list goes on....

 

 

We don't have Pop anywhere around here to the best of my limited knowledge but we understand the usage of such foreign language because of tourism. 

 

What we do have is an adult drink called "Beeyah" or "Bee-uh". 

I'm fairly sure you all have seen those as well but for some reason insist on putting a letter R at the end of the word. 

 

[squonk 41,037]

Using a  glass Gallo Wine jug to buy gas for the lawn mower! 

[SylvanLakeWH 25,493]

1 hour ago, squonk said:

Using a  glass Gallo Wine jug to buy gas for the lawn mower! 

A light, fruity bouquet, with just a hint of carbon... 

[tom2p 2,394]

On 12/1/2020 at 2:54 PM, WHX24 said:

Took pop bottles in for penny candy.... 

 

we did the same thing 

 

we collected bottles and took them to the local gulf station that was around 1 mile from where we lived

 

the gulf station was also a penny candy store 

great memories