Kit Kat Bars

Ok – I am the only one who thinks this?  You know the old jingle:   “Gimmie a break, gimmie a break, break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar”  When was the last time you heard it sung in a Kit Kat commercial?  Seriously – how long has it been?  I scoured the internet and saw videos that were definitely from the ‘80s – maybe the ‘90s.  But that’s the newest commercial I could find with the words sung.  And – I can’t even remember the last time I actually saw a commercial with the words in it.

Chocolate wafer goodness!

So – this leads me to the question that I’d like to ask the kids of today:  Do they have any idea that the snap-snap-snapping of the chocolate bars in the commercials today are playing out the words of the Kit Kat song?  I would guess that they don’t!  If you watch the commercial and imagine that you don’t know the song, it all seems very confusing.  I’m just saying that the guys on Madison Avenue need to rethink their approach to it all.  The song is not so memorable that it’s transcended the time and generation gap.

Remember when they were in foil?

..but they didn’t ask me now, did they?  Of course, since we're talking about

commercials, I have to show one of my all-time favorites: 

Halloween's a-comin'

It’s coming up in only a couple of weeks – one of every kids most favorite days - Halloween. I’m sure that it’s as much of an exciting time today as it was when I was growing up. There was nothing that caused us such anticipated joy and excitement as trick-or-treating on Halloween.

When I tried to figure out why it was such a big deal, I think it’s because we realized that WE were in control of our destiny! All that was required was that we spend a little bit of time planning and we could make an incredible haul. I remember sitting down with my friends and trying to draw a map of the neighborhood, and even the adjacent neighborhoods… we had big plans to hit as many house as we possibly could.

There were a few places we had to make sure to hit, since we knew from previous years that there were good treats to be had there – one house even used to give away full-size candy bars! We had to work fast, but we also had to maximize our time out in the streets. We would negotiate with our moms as to how soon we could start, and how late we could stay out. The older we got, the longer we got to be collecting free candy. It was great!

When we were really young, we had plenty of fun fancy costumes (remember that face-mask smell?) and were the pride of our moms as we went door to door and received many an “Awww, aren’t you cute! Who are you tonight?” By the time we reached our tweens and early teens, it was just a matter of putting on some ragged clothes, scribbling a beard on your face with mom’s or your sister’s mascara, and “ta-dah” you were a bum! Grab the biggest pillowcase you could find and make for the road, there was candy to haul in tonight!

We had fun! There wasn’t the fear unknown people, or harm from candy that may have been tampered with that kids might be faced with today. It was basically a good, clean, fun type of experience and one that brings back plenty of pleasant memories still today.

Do you have some favorite memories or stories from your youth as a trick-or-treater?

The Ice Cream Truck

There was nothing that would lift the spirits of the entire gaggle of neighborhood kids quite like the approaching sound of the ice cream truck. Also called the Popsicle man, or Popsicle lady, depending on who had the route that summer.

Typically, it was late afternoon and the end of a long day of playing outside. The whole neighborhood was out and nearing the end of our energy. As soon as we could begin to hear the silly little music a bunch of thoughts would start to go through our heads. Would mom say it was ok to have an ice cream? Where was the truck – it was always so hard to tell where the music was coming from? Did we have time to run home to get money from mom and get back in time? There were so many choices – what would you get? Although, all of the sudden we had plenty of energy to make sure that we got home and back in time to get catch the truck.

There are a couple of things to note, here. First off, as kids, we typically didn’t have money in our pockets. Not that we didn’t have money, we just didn’t carry it with us. Secondly, this was very likely the highlight of the day for many of us. We’d often be hoping and praying that the truck would come because it was very special. And lastly, our mom’s didn’t have freezers stocked full of ice cream treats. This really was a treat, and especially because there was a lot of variety to choose from – and some things you might not ever get otherwise.

It was a sweet, cold treat on a long, hot day and one of the great memories of growing up!

The General Store

The other day I talked about the local candy store. But what about the local general store? For me, this little store was about six blocks from our house. It seemed that it was there from the beginning of time and was as much a part of our community as anything else.

It had many names: I think in the beginning it was “Lambs”, and then “Jim’s”. We had an account there and we would often be sent on an errand to pick up various items for mom. It was cool to say “put it on our tab”, and then sign the little slip of paper with our signature. It was the type of place with a butcher in the back – I think it was Jim himself or his brother. The other key thing about the store was that it was at the corner of the two main arterials – the veritable epicenter of our little community.

As we grew up, this was one of the fun destinations for us kids. My brother, cousin and I were the ones that I remember most often hanging out there. We would saunter on down to the store and buy some candy and a pop (Shasta, sugar pop) to snack on and then sit on the little brick ledge outside of the front corner door. This afforded us a front row view of people walking and driving by. We got the biggest kick out of watching people doing the funniest things on their way home – assuming they were in their own little private world. We’d catch sight of them singing, picking their nose, funny hair-dos, talking to themselves. It would provide for an afternoon of cheap entertainment and laughs.

Sometime in the mid-70s a 7-11 went in across the street. There was the predicable dip in business as we all flocked to try out the new-fangled slurpees, and I think the store might have even closed for awhile.
They eventually reopened and are still there today, while the 7-11 has been turned into a dentist office. It’s more of a coffee hangout now. It’s gone through a bunch of name changes – “The Store”, The Corner Store”, “The Little Store”, which I think it is now - and there is no butcher any more. But you can still pick up the essentials, grab a treat (caffeinated or not), and even hang out on the ledge and people watch if you want.

Every little community’s got one – do you remember yours?

No excuse

I got really busy.
I published a book.
Christmas came...
My other responsibilities piled up.
I kinda forgot about it...

All of this isn't a good excuse, I know, but I am finally back and ready to blog all things '70s. Since releasing my book, I've had a lot of positive reviews and I've learned a lot about the world of publishing. Of course my book is all about growing up in the '70s. Many people have shared with me so many cool things about their experiences growing up. I'll try to share on one or two specific memories per post and see how that works out, ok?

The local candy store. I grew up in a suburb north of Seattle and we had a few little stores in the area, but none had the same compelling attraction as Godfrey’s. Mom took any of our appliances there to have them fixed when they went on the fritz - apparently he was quite the tinkerer/handyman, but my siblings and I loved going there because he had the best, oddest, couldn't-find-at-the-local-7-11 candy.


Of course we walked there. It was only 5 or 6 blocks away - although since we lived above the Puget Sound, it was all downhill there and all uphill home. We must've been quite the site - Mom lugging some sort of broken appliance in a shopping bag, and all of us kids running along beside her. My brother and I would be especially excited and would most likely be daydreaming about all the goodies that we'd spend our whole 25 cents on.

As we walked in, Mom would greet Mr. Godfrey and begin to explain her latest appliance woe, but us kids would totally zone them out and begin the arduous task of scanning the endless bins of penny candy in an effort to begin to decide which of the sweet treasures we would actually buy. There were candy cigarettes, atom bombs pixies, rock candy strings, candy sticks (root beer was the BEST), smarties, pixy sticks - you know - a tube of flavored sugar, Necco wafers, laffy taffy, sweet tarts, little tootsie rolls, caramels, slo pokes, lemon drops, root beer barrels, jawbreakers, candy necklaces, licorices, gummy bears, etc. etc. etc.

Mom always let us buy our allotted amount, but we had to consume in moderation... so picking what to eat first and what to save for last was sometimes just as difficult as figuring out what to buy.

I realize that this was such a simple pleasure compared to what it takes to appease kids today. It was a good walk in the fresh air; it was spending time with the family; a chance to watch someone who was a good fix-it guy and store owner working and relating with the local neighbors; a lesson in decision making (all those candy choices); an opportunity to learn about commerce – even on a very small scale – as it related directly to my pocket; and a great lot of fun and something to look forward to, especially for a little kid.

What types of penny candy do you remember when you grew up? Did you have a little local store like me? I’d love to hear your stories.