When I was a kid, I lived in a tiny suburb of a tiny town in Northern Utah. River Heights had an elementary school, a couple of churches, and a cemetery — but no grocery stores, banks, or gas stations. If you wanted to do your weekly grocery shopping, you got into the car and made the trip to the Albertsons or Smith’s Food King in downtown Logan. But if you just wanted to pick up a snack or a soda, there were a few miniscule neighborhood markets nearby, each sitting smack dab in the middle of a bunch of old homes. These weren’t convenience stores, in the modern sense of the word, and they were all owned and run by families or older couples who usually lived in the second floor of the building.
During my youth, I spent a lot of time at the house of my two best friends. Shari and Shona were twins and the oldest in a typical Mormon family of six or seven kids. They lived in a modest home, surrounded by a huge vegetable garden and fruit trees, just above the river. Money was tight for the family and while there was plenty of food at meals, there were no sweet treats to nosh on when we would get hungry between meals. Luckily, there was one of these neighborhood markets just across the bridge and down the block – this one run by a rather cranky old guy we called the Candy Man.
The Candy Man’s market had a great selection regular candy: Hershey bars, M&M’s, Tootsie Rolls, Big Hunks, Idaho Spuds, and Chunky bars. He also had jars of penny candy, as well as candy buttons, wax lips, Pixie Sticks, candy cigarettes, and those little wax pop bottles filled with colored syrup.
If you wanted gum, the Candy Man offered Bazooka, gumballs, Fruit Stripe gum, Razzles (first it’s a candy, then it’s a gum!), and bubble gum with trading cards – like my favorite, Wacky Packages.
Do you remember these? I LOVED them! No need to buy the packs and chew the rock hard gum anymore — you can now just buy a couple of books that have pictures of all the stickers!!
The best thing about the Candy Man was that, after you became a regular, you didn’t have to have money to buy snacks! He seemed to understand the problem of being an 11-year-old with no job and a tiny allowance. One glorious day, as the twins and I pooled our nickels to buy a small selection of penny candy, the Candy Man told us that if we brought him coupons, we could get our candy free. Initially, we were confused – we didn’t really know what coupons were or how they were used. The Candy Man educated us, showing us a few coupons for products like toilet paper and cereal and telling us we could find them in magazines and sometimes the newspaper (this was before the days of the Sunday newspapers having two or three coupon inserts). He explained that he would take any coupon for anything he sold in the store – and he would give us half the value of the coupon to spend on candy!
Needless to say, we were on a mission! No magazine or newspaper was safe from us. On a good week, we managed to find a dollar or two worth of coupons – allowing us to buy a significant amount of sweet stuff! Every so often, the Candy Man would slide a coupon back to us, telling us he didn’t stock that particular product – but for the most part, he took almost every coupon we were able to collect.
That summer, I was spending a few weeks at my grandmother’s house in Idaho. This particular grandma was old and rather gruff, and had no television. My sister and I were often left to our own devices and played outside most of the time. However, on this visit I found a cupboard that was full of Reader’s Digest magazines! I was thrilled and promptly sat on the floor and began to page through them to find some coupons to take home with me. I’m sad to say, the pickings were few and far between and I began to get frustrated. My grandmother, who was walking by and heard my loud sigh, stopped and asked what I was doing. I explained the story of the Candy Man and my quest for coupons for free candy. My grandmother listened dispassionately and then said, “You know, that is illegal. He is only supposed to take a coupon when a customer uses it to buy that particular product.” I was stunned and disillusioned – the Candy Man was a crook! However, that didn’t stop me from going through the rest of the magazines to make sure there were no more coupons to be had.
When I returned home, I gathered my coupons and rode my bike to the twin’s house – excited to visit the Candy Man’s market and score some more free candy (I had a small criminal mind and the lure of candy overcame any moral objection I may have fleetingly experienced). The twins broke the heartbreaking news – the Candy Man’s market was closed and shuttered. According to the arrest blotter in the local paper, he had been picked up for coupon fraud. It was a sad, sad day.
I’m not sure what happened to the Candy Man. His shop never opened again and we were, once again, forced to resort to paying actual cash when we wanted a sugar infusion.
Dammit — now I want a sugar infusion! Since Idaho Spuds are a regional candy, and not sold in my state, tell me about your favorite candy (from childhood or now). Maybe I can try something new and delicious!
OMG I forgot about those stickers! I LOVED THOSE STICKERS! What a blast this was.
Shhhh…let me tell you about my secret shame. When the Garbage Pail Kids gum/stickers came out in 1985, I bought them for my “kids” (who were all of 1 and 3-years-old and did not chew gum). I loved those things – they appealed to my dark side and made me laugh.
I remember this one time my mom and I found giant, 1 meter long pixie sticks at a party supply store. Heaven is real, people, and it’s a yard of flavored sugar in a tube.
I think I’ve seen those!! Was it a plastic tube/container that was really hard to break into? I seem to remember almost breaking my teeth trying to gnaw my way into one and finally having to resort to get scissors.
Was your grandma the one who turned him in?
I don’t THINK so – but I’ve never really thought about it before. I have just always assumed that someone local spilled the beans…or in this case, the Atomic Fireballs…or the Pop Rocks…or the Good ‘N Plenty…or the Sixlets…or the… 🙂
Wow! So did he use the coupons on his own shopping? We don’t have coupon culture here, so I really don’t know how it works.
Flying saucers are the best – two coloured rice-paper hemispheres glued together with magic, with *just enough* sherbet inside
OK – get ready for a little Coupon 101! So how coupons are supposed to work is that the consumer buys the product and gives the coupon to the merchant, who deducts that price from the posted price of the product. Then the merchant sends the coupons in to the manufacturer, who in turn reimburses the merchant the face value of the coupon PLUS a handling fee (last time I looked, it was like eight cents). Legally, the merchant has to be able to prove that he sold enough of the product for which he received coupons (if asked). So, the Candy Man was taking coupons from us for product he never sold. Then he would “pay” us half value in candy – and then submit all the coupons for reimbursement – making a nice profit of at least half the face value (probably more, since the candy was bought wholesale and we were “buying” it retail), plus the redemption fee. When you figure all the kids that were gathering coupons for him, I’m sure he made a nice profit over time. I gather he was caught when someone realized that he was redeeming many more coupons than he had stock of the items.
OHHHHHH BLIMEY! Okay so that’s really some kinda hardcore candy-fuelled fraud! Wow.
Being from a tiny squished country like the UK, it’s so fascinating to read about such a remote community. I was about to say that I drove across Idaho once, but I’ve just remembered that it was Indiana I drove across. I loved your fleeting brush with the criminal underworld – coupon fraud doesn’t seem like a big enough deal to warrant an arrest surely?! – and hope you managed to return to the straight and narrow okay 😉
Idaho, Indiana — it’s all the same really 🙂 I wish I could say that my coupon fraud was the only walk on the criminal path — but there were others. I’ve got a post about that (My Problems with the Po-Po). Be warned, you may never look at me in the same way again (however, I am now a reformed, upright, contributing member of society — so there is hope for all of us).
Oh thank goodness the Candy Man was actually that…a man who sold candy….for a moment I wasn’t sure how this story was going to end. It is a sad ending nonetheless…No more free candy. Boo!
Yeah — it occurred to me later that readers might see the title and think it was more about a “Come here, little girl — I have a lollypop for you” instead of an actual story about a store owner who actually sold candy. Luckily, I never had to deal with the first kind of guy!
Ah, The chunky bar. Yum. We had a store called Colonel C.M. Sweets who stocked stuff like that. My thing has always been cotton candy, popcorn balls and anything chocolate. 🙂
The Chunky Bar had its place — except for that one that had raisins in it. That was disgusting! Raisins are the scourge of both candy and baked goods — and belong in neither (or in anything else, for that matter). I would eat raisins if there was an apocalypse or something — but that’s about it.
I share your hatred of raisins. There sole purpose is to fool you into thinking no they are chocolate chips.
Great freaking post, Jana. It was like taking a time machine back to childhood!! Like you, I grew up in a small town. No, that’s not right, I grew up in what is affectionately referred to in the south as…”The Sticks.” Population 585, this included the farm animals, lol 😉 Our place was called a “country store” (Jacks). It was a dilapidated shack which contained, soda, beer, cigarettes, milk, bread, butter, eggs, one isle of can coods, candy & bait. Yes you heard it….BAIT. My fav candy then (when I had strong teeth) was called chick-o-sticks. 5 cents a stick it was absolute Heaven and a sugar rush unmatched!! That & his infamous pickles which I was sure had been made during the civil war, were my favorite. Luv this post, girl and sharing it now!!! 😉 xoxo <3
OMG — Chick-O-Sticks! I remember those, they were delicious crunchy delights! Did Jack’s have an old-timey pickle barrel?? Please tell me they did!