My Generation's Version of Butter Beer?

While visiting my friend, Crash, I noticed she had some old school candy. I confess that the sight of candy cigarettes made me smile. It brought back fond memories of my childhood and the penny candy store we used to frequent. Depending on how old you are, I bet it does the same for you. Gosh, a quarter really got you something back then.

Crash was kind enough to give me a box and they tasted and looked just as I remembered, complete with the red tipped end. Yeah, looks just like a flame. Not.

These were just the plain sticks but can you recall the ones where they were wrapped in paper and had powder between the candy and paper? You blew on them and it looked like real smoke. At least, from a distance.

I’m pretty sure they’re hard to come by in these days of protecting kids from adult bad habits. Funny thing, as much as I liked candy cigarettes and bubble gum cigars, I never became a cigarette smoker and I only have the occasional cigar. That’s even with both of my parents smoking when I was a kid. Hell, pretty much every adult when I was a kid smoked including the Nuns who taught me in school.

Does that mean I had more discipline or willpower to not do what was considered (at the time) mainstream? I don’t think so. I think I was just lucky enough to not have the addictive gene that sucks people into smoking and doesn’t let them out without a lot of pain and effort.

I do know that it was a welcome blast to the past to have these. Those were the days when my biggest concerns in life were having enough money for both candy and comic books and trying to figure out how to get out of religious education class. Good times, good times.