This post will be much shorter than the posts you're used to here at Ton-Fifty-ONE, because it's late...but I had to share this. I realize that by the time all of you read this, the day will be past, but I learned today at work that this day, October 30, is National Candy Corn Day! How could I let the day go by without announcing it to my faithful readers? Especially since candy corn was my very most favoritest Halloween candy ever!I bought a bag of candy corn a couple weeks ago, on an impulse buy, because it was on display in the middle of an aisle, and it was Brach's. And only Brach's candy corn will do. So yeah...I bought a bag, I reminisced, and I wrote a column about it. I'm sure my readers were ecstatic.
And now today I found out that the day before Halloween is a day devoted completely to candy corn.
The National Confectioners Association claims that more than 35 million pounds of candy corn will be produced this year. This equates to approximately the same amount I used to eat each Halloween when I was a kid.
I have to admit that by the time I was half finished with the pound-and-a-half bag I bought recently, I was sick of it. Maybe it's just a kid thing, I don't know. Or maybe sugar isn't quite as important when you reach your (*sigh*) late 30s.
Although according to that Web site, one serving of candy corn contains only about 140 calories. What they don't tell you, though, is that one serving is that tiny white tip of each kernel. When you get down into the orange and yellow sections, you're diving into three- and four-serving territory in a big big hurry.
Anyway, I couldn't help but share the news of National Candy Corn Day. And while it's a day late as you read this, maybe you can think back to some of your own favorite Halloween candies when you were younger...and some you never outgrew.
What candy could you simply not resist?
(see you all on Thursday. which, also by the time you read this, is the same as saying, "see you all tomorrow.")
(here we go.)
"I'll bet living in a nudist colony
takes all the fun out of Halloween."
—Charles Swartz
2 points of contention:
ReplyDelete1. I cannot disagree more with the late-30's sugar ennui. My passion for junk food has not only not subsided but increased. Tragically, my leanings tend to fall upon bakery - - in all its forms, but especially a good pile of supermarket deli/bakery rolls like the old Red Owl in Two Rivers, those massive, righteously frosted chocolate persian mothers... oy. Brings a bloody tear to me eye, Cap'n.
2. I have, for an entire lifetime, loathed candy corn. I recall fobbing those little nubs of nonsense onto my father and brother who, like yourself, foamed at the mouth for 'em. Yich. Worse still, gumdrops... nasty beyond words.
And, finally, to answer your querry, the candy that never seems to go out of fashion for my palatte would be the perennial favoriate, the Kit Kat bar.
A quick anecdote: the first year my wife n' I were dating, she knew of my KitKat fondness. For my birthday cake that year, she purchased 4 BIG KitKats and placed them high atop a chocolate cake as if it were ONE BIG HONKIN' KIT KAT BAR on a cake.
Seeing as the sugar content of that behemouth was through the roof, to say I "died and went to heaven" is not too far from the truth, I'm sure. Probably shaved 2 years off my life after that cake but hey... those final 2 years are a bummer anyway, I hear.
Now PLUNDER ON, OH BROTHER IN PoMo! November is upon us!
Candy corn never did much for me. I'll eat it. But I could go the rest of my life without ever having another bite. My wife loves the stuff though. It's her favorite. So the odds of me never ingesting another morsel of those fat-free empty calories? Zero.
ReplyDeleteSo, where does that leave me candy-wise? Well, I'll refrain from mentioning chocolate. Because candy bars will always win out over candy. Note, I don't consider chocolate to be candy. Candy to me is stuff like candy corn, smarties, jelly beans, gum drops, gummi bears...
So for me, the weakness is gumdrops - you know, the fruity, jelly things with tiny bits of sugar dotting them. However, like you, I am partial to one brand - Brach's. And let me tell you something, finding them is a BITCH! All of your local grocery stores now have these generic kinds - most of which are squishy and disgusting. And when I use the word "disgusting," I of course mean even more disgusting than Brach's gumdrops. Hell, I even bought a case of them off of Amazon.com once.
I also must agree about what sugar now does to me. Yes, they taste so good at first. But the more you sit and eat them, the more your stomach starts to hurt. The next thing you know, it feels like a pit of nastiness has entered you. Best to stop at that point.
Wow...one vote "loathe" and one vote "indifference" in the candy corn category, eh? Thanks for the input.
ReplyDeleteDuring my latest indulgence, I've learned that it's still quite a treat once in a great while...but in moderation, to be certain. From now on, I'll buy fun size boxes instead of paperweight-worthy bags.
Oh, and I also have to vote "nyet!" on the gumdrops. I can eat one or two, and then I find myself saying, to myself, "So that's why I don't eat these things!"