One of the fondest memories I have from my childhood was going to the “candy lady”. Seems like every neighborhood had one. The candy lady was usually an elderly (at least to us kids) neighborhood lady who sold snacks from her house. Candy, of course, was on the menu along with cookies, chips, soda and frozen cups. For those of you not familiar with what a frozen cup is, it’s basically really, really sweet Kool-Aid, frozen in Styrofoam cups. Sometimes during the hot summer months, she would have ice-cream treats; individual treats or she would simply dish up a cup of ice-cream for a few pennies.
When I got older, I use to wonder just why we flocked to the candy lady. We certainly could have gone to the corner store and bought these items ourselves, probably cheaper. I was surprised to find that the candy lady still exists today. Just down the block, she sells her wares to the neighborhood kids. As I sat thinking about the candy lady yesterday, a thought popped into my head. Life was much easier for us kids when I was growing up. We didn’t have to worry about the things that our kids worry about today. The scariest thing I remember from my childhood was a rumor going around that a half-man, half-wolf-like creature was going through the neighborhood killing animals and throwing their body in the ditch (that’s canal for you city folk). All because a pig was found dead in a ditch and no one knew where he came from or who he belonged to!
We spent our time playing outside, climbing trees, picking blackberries that grew on vines that ran alongside the fence on our property. We ate fresh-picked apples or figs pilfered from our neighbors’ trees. At night, we made shadow puppets on the house, gazed at the stars, and dreamed dreams of what it would be like when we grew up.
Little did we know, things would change so drastically. Today our kids have to worry about AIDS, the senseless violence in our schools, drugs, another 911, war. Now that I think about it, I’m glad the candy lady still exists. I’m glad that at some point during the day the only thing some kids have to worry about is what flavor frozen cup they want.
See also:
Sharing Your Childhood Passions With Your Kids