The Tobacco Store

It's the middle of summer.  I'm walking down the sidewalk of downtown Hobart, IN with my two older sisters, Moneta and Gay. The streets resemble thousands of small towns across America in the seventies.

Hobart, IN

 Our flip flops smack the pavement in unison.  It is another sweltering day but we don't have a care in the world. No school. No homework. No need to answer the ring of a cell phone or text message notification.  In fact, the only important thing on our young minds is the thought of going into the most tempting shop in town. Our sweaty hands hold quarters and our mouths begin to water in anticipation.  The name of this hallowed location?  The Tobacco Store.  Why do we love this place? The CANDY!


We pull open the door and a bell rings out to notify the spinster behind the register that customers have entered her shop. She scowls at us over the top of  black, half-eye glasses. Trying our best to ignore her boring eyes we begin the difficult task of deciding what to purchase.

What a sweet old lady!

 Children in the Tobacco Store were only allowed in the front aisles.  The back aisles, which carried "nasty" magazines and tobacco products were strictly off limits!  If the grouchy clerk even suspected a kid was creeping back to glean a peak at a girly magazine she would croak, "Get out from behind those racks right this minute!" I'm watching you!"  She was a peach.  Even our own grandma wasn't that mean!  Ha!

We would stand for a long time gazing at display upon display of the best candy selection in the Midwest.  Many of these items aren't even sold anymore.  They represented a time period, a snapshot of sweet seduction.  My sister Gay, who now goes by her nickname, JJ, recently told me her favorites. Sour grape and sour cherry gumballs sold for a penny each. Pixy Stix, 5 for a penny, that made you pucker up and turned your tongue bright colors!  Wax vampire teeth and tiny plastic 6-packs of pop.  Turkish Taffy that we would throw against a wall to break up! But her all-time favorites were Buns which sold for a dime. They were chocolate covered peanut mounds and you could choose between maple, orange or vanilla cream centers.  Is your mouth beginning to water?

Sis's favorite!

My favorites included Lucky Strike candy cigarettes that you pretended were real just to piss your smoking parents off.  The wax milk bottles loaded with thick colored syrup were the bomb! After sucking the syrup out you would chew on the bottles until they became mangled bits that you spat out like chewing tobacco.  Bazooka bubble gum with the tiny cartoons printed on the wrapper.  Ah, those were the days! Never mind the cavities!!  Who could afford the dentist back then, anyway?

Best bubble gum in the world!

My husband Rick, who is from VA,  fondly remembers a general store named Dooley's that he loved to go in with his brothers and sister.  He told me that they sold more than just delicious candy.  You could purchase homemade cookies stored in huge glass jars or even pickled eggs!  I am really hungry now.  ; )

Who wants to open an old time candy store with me?  Tell me what you would carry and why?