(No Title)

You've got to be pretty old to remember candy cigarettes, but I do. So now you know I'm not a kid anymore. Candy cigarettes were the confection of choice for children of smokers back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. There was no such thing as a surgeon general's warning back then. For all I know, there was no such thing as a surgeon general. Political correctness hadn't been invented yet, and if it had, my parents would have passed it up in a heartbeat. Why buy into a philosophy guaranteed to make everyone miserable by denying them their ciggies--candy or otherwise? Candy cigarettes were so popular they often appeared in the spilled-out Halloween bags of pre-schoolers, in convenient treat-sized packs of three Lucky Strikes each. A kid could always count on getting a stash from the Angelos, the Perkins, and the Mahoneys and on good years, the Hedricks and the Ramms. During the rest of the year, a standard pack from Katz Drug Store held twenty smokes, just like Dad's, but people tended to cut back a little for Halloween. (And, it should be noted, during Lent.) We lived in the middle of a long block of small bungalows in 1959, next door to Patty and Karen, and not far from the twins, Mary Janice and Mary Jeannette. Way up the street lived Dennis "The Menace" Van Buskirk and way down at the other end lived Pamela "The Pig" Murphy. Under no circumstances were we allowed to go past the Van Buskirk's house on one end or the Murphy's on the other. And as you might have guessed by their nicknames, we didn't often venture too close to their houses, either. (At our next house we had Scary Larry and his wolf-dog "Baby" to deal with, but that's another story.) My five-year-old sister Lizzie was a bully, and not frightened like I was of Dennis the Menace and Pamela the Pig. Lizzie spent much of her time on the outskirts of our boundaries, making life for those on the edge as hair-raising as possible. One day, she decided to show Pamela the Pig, who was hanging out on the corner smoking cigarettes with all her juvenile delinquent friends, what was what. Lizzie took off for the corner with her brand new pack of candy cigs in hand. She planted herself squarely in front of Pamela the Pig, demanded the attention of the whole gang of hoodlums, and said, "Hey, look at me, Pamela the Pig! I'm smoking, too!" With that, she puffed sophisticatedly on her stick of candy. Undaunted, Pamela the Pig pulled her lighter out of her pocket, sneered, lit the end of Lizzie's candy, and set it dripping into a puddle on Lizzie's saddle oxfords. Lizzie bawled all the way home, but never regretted taunting Pamela the Pig. In 1959, that's what neighborhoods were for. Wouldn't it be great if things were still so simple? If you could still get away with naming your enemies, calling them what you named them right out loud, and standing up to them even if they were five times your size? And wouldn't it be swell if they could still curl their surly lips and light your candy on fire to pay you back? The older I get, and the more hemmed in I feel by political correctness, the harder it's getting not to miss the good, old neighborhood, and candy cigarettes.

Posted by Katy on 11/13/02 at 06:34 PM

Fallible Comments...

steph, was that 'pika child' question for me? not sure what that is...
Posted by lisa on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
we had them here in north carolina, which makes sense, considering it's tobacco country and all. and ours most definitely had the red tips. however, i am most definitely allergic to cigarette smoke, so they were the only cigarettes i have ever tried. (oh, and i'm 23, just to let you know.)
Posted by kari on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Steph, Well! Foiled again! I was so sure that red-tipped candy cigs were a boomer memory. If they're anywhere in KC, I'd like to know where...
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
lol! i find the wisdom of poison control to be hilarious. as for the candy cigarette thing, we still have those here. woohoo. red-tipped and everthing. :)
Posted by Steph on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Whoa, Bethany! Silica gel, you are hard core! When Scotty was two, he and his little buddy drank gasoline. We called poison control, and they said, "don't light a match!" Small comfort.
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
ok i forgot to add that the used cigarette sucking took place also in st. louis, when i was about 7 or 8. it's not something i do regularly these days. we also live in a nicer neighborhood now where one doesn't find beer bottles and cigarette butts in one's yard that one didn't place there.
Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
oh, ours didn't have red tips. what a rip off. but they did say candy cigarettes on them! and i remember them from when i lived in st. louis. maybe there was some sort of black market of candy cigarettes taking place in the neighborhood 7-eleven's. i've never had a real cigarette. i guess that's what college is for - all that wild oat sowing. ;) although i once or twice i picked up a used one out of our front yard and sucked on that (i know - very, very gross. i also once at silica gel - you know the stuff that comes in little packets in shoeboxes that says DO NOT EAT all over it? yeah, i ate that when i was four - purely because it said not to. i was a rather contrary child, but my punishment was in the fact that it didn't taste very good)
Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
My dad was forced to stop smoking (and drinking) when I was 12, when he had his first heart attack. Until then, our kitchen wall proudly displayed (beside his chair) a plastic dispenser which held a carton of his brand, Lucky's. One day, the Luckys went away, never to return. So I never sneaked a single cig!
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Yeah. It was fun to try to figure out the right way to hold them to look authentic. With that kind of encouragement it wasn't long before we were stealing cigarettes out of our parents packs and sneaking off to the woods to light up. Boy, the candy versions sure tasted better.
Posted by sainteros on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Hi, Sainteros! Oh, but didn't the red tip make you feel like you were the real deal? I played the exotic, elegant movie star when I "smoked."
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
"Nebraska" comments meant for Bethany.
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
OK, maybe in Nebraska candy cigs stayed on the market longer than in the "big city." You really had them? I haven't seen these for 30-35 years! The gum sounds fun, too, though white powder would send up some red flags these days. xox
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
I was thinking about these just the other day. My kids brought home in their Halloween loot the contemporary equivalent. Now they're just called "Candy Sticks." There were four in the little box (no Lucky Strikes logo), and as far as I could discern the only difference was that they lacked the bit of red dye at the tip intended to make it look as though the candy cigarette was lit.
Posted by sainteros on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
hey i had candy cigarettes fairly often when i was a kid - and i'm only 18! :) i'm not sure if they still make them, though. my sister and i were just reminiscing about them the other day. also cool were the cigarette gum sticks - about the weight and size as a real cigarette, but made out of bubblegum wrapped in paper. the cool thing was there was white powder - not sure what - flour? - inside the paper, so when you put the cig to your mouth and blew, "smoke" came out. that was awesome. i have fond "neighborhood" memories too...like being threatend with a bb gun by the neighborhood punks. ah, good times. (actually, they really were)
-----
Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Steph, Kari and all--You've opened up a world to me I didn't know existed. I cannot believe that there are no activist campaigns to shut down the manufacture and sales of candy cigarettes! After all the hullabaloo about how the cartoon figure of Joe Camel was seducing our children into a life of smoking? Tee, hee. The professional protestors have missed a bet.
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
i always wanted to smoke, until they banned joe camel. thank you, tobacca watchdogs of america!
Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Steph, Yes. More precious than many fine jewels. Do they make sugar-free candy necklaces?
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Lisa, Hilarious! "Gross"--uh, can you help us here? Too funny. And congrats on being smoke-free.
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
speaking of calling the 'authorities'...our pastor's daughter once sucked the guts out of a caterpiller...when they called 911 and asked what to do there was silence on the other end followed by a disbelieving "GROSS!!!". small comforts, indeed...and i well remember candy cigarettes WITH the fake glowing red tip (michigan apparantly winked on the selling of such reality based candy to minors) - i doubt they were solely responsible for my years of smoking that followed - nevertheless, i am happy to report that my nicotine addict days are over now :)
Posted by lisa on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
She wasn't a pika child by any chance, was she? Candy necklaces have never lost their allure for me. I still pick up a string or two every few months. They're my favorite accessory. :)
Posted by Steph on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Bethany, In my opinion, there are very many things that can make up for the fact that you are eating WAX. Tee, hee.
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
i know, but the flavor, such as it was, never quite made up for the fact that you were eating WAX, in my opinion.
Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Bridgie, Are you sure you didn't get short-necklaced?
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Bethany, the wax lips are FLAVORED! I forget what flavor, but yummy.
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Okay, the candy necklace thing..I had one of those about a month ago. Funny how my neck has gotten so much bigger in my "old" age! :)
Posted by Bridget on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
i never understood the whole red wax lips thing...what is so yummy about wax? why not just go chew on a candle?
Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
come to quebec. we appear to be quite liberal, what with rejecting the mores of catholocism and all. i think "lapsed catholic" is our unofficial provincial religion. ;) 'tis the social background for excessive alcoholism, elevated suicide rates, low movie ratings (if it's r where you are, it could be g here), and of course, candy fascimiles of addictive drugs. :)
Posted by Steph on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
Yes, yes, yes! I want some! And a candy necklace and some juicy red wax lips, too...won't all of that go great together? xox
Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
I know I've seen candy ciggies within the past year in MO, Katy. I'll bet I can find them in the 'burg! You know, the small town thing and all. :)
Posted by Bridget on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM
we appear to be quite liberal, what with rejecting the mores of catholocism and all. i think "lapsed catholic" is our unofficial provincial religion.
Posted by Smoking Cigars on 02/05/09 at 08:46 AM
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The Burgundy soil is mainly based on oolitic limestone, upon which both the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes flourish.
Posted by Antoinette B. Kean on 02/26/09 at 01:36 PM
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Posted by Lorene J. Diggs on 03/03/09 at 09:58 AM

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Personal blog of christian writer & fallible mom Katy McKenna Raymond in Kansas City, Missouri Katy is represented by Greg Johnson at WordServe Literary Read more Katy at LateBoomer.net Follow Katy on Twitter Follow Katy on Facebook 123 Recent Posts Try Becoming Brenda Starr Off Beat Scattered That’s It So I’ve Finally Signed With An Agent. Now What? The Spoon Sciatica Sweetheart A Woman’s Train of Thought Has No Caboose However much we own, we are all still living on borrowed time After all, when restaurants shrink portions, they don’t shrink prices. As with everything in life, balance is key. Slow down, you move too fast… Yeah, I know. I have issues. Search Advanced Search Syndicate Login E me at katy @ ngenius.com	(No Title) You've got to be pretty old to remember candy cigarettes, but I do. So now you know I'm not a kid anymore. Candy cigarettes were the confection of choice for children of smokers back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. There was no such thing as a surgeon general's warning back then. For all I know, there was no such thing as a surgeon general. Political correctness hadn't been invented yet, and if it had, my parents would have passed it up in a heartbeat. Why buy into a philosophy guaranteed to make everyone miserable by denying them their ciggies--candy or otherwise? Candy cigarettes were so popular they often appeared in the spilled-out Halloween bags of pre-schoolers, in convenient treat-sized packs of three Lucky Strikes each. A kid could always count on getting a stash from the Angelos, the Perkins, and the Mahoneys and on good years, the Hedricks and the Ramms. During the rest of the year, a standard pack from Katz Drug Store held twenty smokes, just like Dad's, but people tended to cut back a little for Halloween. (And, it should be noted, during Lent.) We lived in the middle of a long block of small bungalows in 1959, next door to Patty and Karen, and not far from the twins, Mary Janice and Mary Jeannette. Way up the street lived Dennis "The Menace" Van Buskirk and way down at the other end lived Pamela "The Pig" Murphy. Under no circumstances were we allowed to go past the Van Buskirk's house on one end or the Murphy's on the other. And as you might have guessed by their nicknames, we didn't often venture too close to their houses, either. (At our next house we had Scary Larry and his wolf-dog "Baby" to deal with, but that's another story.) My five-year-old sister Lizzie was a bully, and not frightened like I was of Dennis the Menace and Pamela the Pig. Lizzie spent much of her time on the outskirts of our boundaries, making life for those on the edge as hair-raising as possible. One day, she decided to show Pamela the Pig, who was hanging out on the corner smoking cigarettes with all her juvenile delinquent friends, what was what. Lizzie took off for the corner with her brand new pack of candy cigs in hand. She planted herself squarely in front of Pamela the Pig, demanded the attention of the whole gang of hoodlums, and said, "Hey, look at me, Pamela the Pig! I'm smoking, too!" With that, she puffed sophisticatedly on her stick of candy. Undaunted, Pamela the Pig pulled her lighter out of her pocket, sneered, lit the end of Lizzie's candy, and set it dripping into a puddle on Lizzie's saddle oxfords. Lizzie bawled all the way home, but never regretted taunting Pamela the Pig. In 1959, that's what neighborhoods were for. Wouldn't it be great if things were still so simple? If you could still get away with naming your enemies, calling them what you named them right out loud, and standing up to them even if they were five times your size? And wouldn't it be swell if they could still curl their surly lips and light your candy on fire to pay you back? The older I get, and the more hemmed in I feel by political correctness, the harder it's getting not to miss the good, old neighborhood, and candy cigarettes. Posted by Katy on 11/13/02 at 06:34 PM Fallible Comments... steph, was that 'pika child' question for me? not sure what that is... Posted by lisa on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM we had them here in north carolina, which makes sense, considering it's tobacco country and all. and ours most definitely had the red tips. however, i am most definitely allergic to cigarette smoke, so they were the only cigarettes i have ever tried. (oh, and i'm 23, just to let you know.) Posted by kari on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Steph, Well! Foiled again! I was so sure that red-tipped candy cigs were a boomer memory. If they're anywhere in KC, I'd like to know where... Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM lol! i find the wisdom of poison control to be hilarious. as for the candy cigarette thing, we still have those here. woohoo. red-tipped and everthing. :) Posted by Steph on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Whoa, Bethany! Silica gel, you are hard core! When Scotty was two, he and his little buddy drank gasoline. We called poison control, and they said, "don't light a match!" Small comfort. Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM ok i forgot to add that the used cigarette sucking took place also in st. louis, when i was about 7 or 8. it's not something i do regularly these days. we also live in a nicer neighborhood now where one doesn't find beer bottles and cigarette butts in one's yard that one didn't place there. Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM oh, ours didn't have red tips. what a rip off. but they did say candy cigarettes on them! and i remember them from when i lived in st. louis. maybe there was some sort of black market of candy cigarettes taking place in the neighborhood 7-eleven's.<br>i've never had a real cigarette. i guess that's what college is for - all that wild oat sowing. ;) although i once or twice i picked up a used one out of our front yard and sucked on that (i know - very, very gross. i also once at silica gel - you know the stuff that comes in little packets in shoeboxes that says DO NOT EAT all over it? yeah, i ate that when i was four - purely because it said not to. i was a rather contrary child, but my punishment was in the fact that it didn't taste very good) Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM My dad was forced to stop smoking (and drinking) when I was 12, when he had his first heart attack. Until then, our kitchen wall proudly displayed (beside his chair) a plastic dispenser which held a carton of his brand, Lucky's. One day, the Luckys went away, never to return. So I never sneaked a single cig! Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Yeah. It was fun to try to figure out the right way to hold them to look authentic. With that kind of encouragement it wasn't long before we were stealing cigarettes out of our parents packs and sneaking off to the woods to light up. Boy, the candy versions sure tasted better. Posted by sainteros on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Hi, Sainteros! Oh, but didn't the red tip make you feel like you were the real deal? I played the exotic, elegant movie star when I "smoked." Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM "Nebraska" comments meant for Bethany. Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM OK, maybe in Nebraska candy cigs stayed on the market longer than in the "big city." You really had them? I haven't seen these for 30-35 years! The gum sounds fun, too, though white powder would send up some red flags these days. xox Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM I was thinking about these just the other day. My kids brought home in their Halloween loot the contemporary equivalent. Now they're just called "Candy Sticks." There were four in the little box (no Lucky Strikes logo), and as far as I could discern the only difference was that they lacked the bit of red dye at the tip intended to make it look as though the candy cigarette was lit. Posted by sainteros on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM hey i had candy cigarettes fairly often when i was a kid - and i'm only 18! :) i'm not sure if they still make them, though. my sister and i were just reminiscing about them the other day.<br>also cool were the cigarette gum sticks - about the weight and size as a real cigarette, but made out of bubblegum wrapped in paper. the cool thing was there was white powder - not sure what - flour? - inside the paper, so when you put the cig to your mouth and blew, "smoke" came out. that was awesome.<br>i have fond "neighborhood" memories too...like being threatend with a bb gun by the neighborhood punks. ah, good times. (actually, they really were) ----- Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Steph, Kari and all--You've opened up a world to me I didn't know existed. I cannot believe that there are no activist campaigns to shut down the manufacture and sales of candy cigarettes! After all the hullabaloo about how the cartoon figure of Joe Camel was seducing our children into a life of smoking? Tee, hee. The professional protestors have missed a bet. Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM i always wanted to smoke, until they banned joe camel. thank you, tobacca watchdogs of america! Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Steph, Yes. More precious than many fine jewels. Do they make sugar-free candy necklaces? Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Lisa, Hilarious! "Gross"--uh, can you help us here? Too funny. And congrats on being smoke-free. Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM speaking of calling the 'authorities'...our pastor's daughter once sucked the guts out of a caterpiller...when they called 911 and asked what to do there was silence on the other end followed by a disbelieving "GROSS!!!". small comforts, indeed...and i well remember candy cigarettes WITH the fake glowing red tip (michigan apparantly winked on the selling of such reality based candy to minors) - i doubt they were solely responsible for my years of smoking that followed - nevertheless, i am happy to report that my nicotine addict days are over now :) Posted by lisa on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM She wasn't a pika child by any chance, was she? <br>Candy necklaces have never lost their allure for me. I still pick up a string or two every few months. They're my favorite accessory. :) Posted by Steph on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Bethany, In my opinion, there are very many things that can make up for the fact that you are eating WAX. Tee, hee. Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM i know, but the flavor, such as it was, never quite made up for the fact that you were eating WAX, in my opinion. Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Bridgie, Are you sure you didn't get short-necklaced? Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Bethany, the wax lips are FLAVORED! I forget what flavor, but yummy. Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Okay, the candy necklace thing..I had one of those about a month ago. Funny how my neck has gotten so much bigger in my "old" age! :) Posted by Bridget on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM i never understood the whole red wax lips thing...what is so yummy about wax? why not just go chew on a candle? Posted by bethany on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM come to quebec. we appear to be quite liberal, what with rejecting the mores of catholocism and all. i think "lapsed catholic" is our unofficial provincial religion. ;) 'tis the social background for excessive alcoholism, elevated suicide rates, low movie ratings (if it's r where you are, it could be g here), and of course, candy fascimiles of addictive drugs. :) Posted by Steph on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM Yes, yes, yes! I want some! And a candy necklace and some juicy red wax lips, too...won't all of that go great together? xox Posted by Katy on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM I know I've seen candy ciggies within the past year in MO, Katy. I'll bet I can find them in the 'burg! You know, the small town thing and all. :) Posted by Bridget on 12/31/69 at 12:00 PM we appear to be quite liberal, what with rejecting the mores of catholocism and all. i think "lapsed catholic" is our unofficial provincial religion. Posted by Smoking Cigars on 02/05/09 at 08:46 AM <br><a href="http://www.burgundywinevarieties.com/">Burgundy Wine </a> lies at the very heart of France, and is one of the world’s finest wine producing regions. Located two hours to the southeast of Paris, the wine area starts in Chablis in the north of the region and then it follows the autoroute A6 southerly to Lyon. The Burgundy soil is mainly based on oolitic limestone, upon which both the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes flourish. Posted by Antoinette B. Kean on 02/26/09 at 01:36 PM Is good to know that this product is a medications that prevent the enzymes called phosphodiesterase that work really fast in situation like erectile dysfunction or impotence, and these kind of enzymes work directly in the penis and of course <a href="http://www.mypenegra.com/">Penegra</a> dilates the arteries in the penis and thus allows filling of blood into the small spaces in the penis. Posted by Lorene J. Diggs on 03/03/09 at 09:58 AM Page 1 of 1 pages Commenting is not available in this weblog entry. Next entry: (No Title) Previous entry: (No Title) << Back to main


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Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri