These blog posts are not excerpts from my pending book, Baby Boomer Reflections, but rather additional memories I’m having after writing the book. If you like these posts, please share them with your FaceBook friends.

Also, if you have any ideas for future posts, or you’d like to contribute a post of your own, please send me your thoughts directly to fred@babyboomerreflections.com.

As I recall, and it’s getting increasingly more difficult to do that every day, getting candy became a frequent experience in elementary school. My parents would send me to school with a few cents in my lunch bucket. Sometime around noon, a teacher would accompany us, as so that we could cross the street in front of the school, to go into a house that had a store attached to it. I’m sure that store sold other things, but for sure, it sold “penny candy.” Penny candy meant you could generally buy one piece of candy for one cent. The term is still in vogue, and it applies to individually wrapped candy with a history of at least fifty years. The same candy is certainly a whole lot more expensive today.

The first of these individually wrapped by-the-piece candies were Tootsie Rolls in the late 1800s. Following quickly thereafter were Necco Wafer’s “Sweethearts,” and Hershey Kisses, chocolate’s first entry in the game. Next, came bottle caps, licorice, candy corn, bubble gum and jawbreakers.

In addition to the neighborhood “Mom and Pop” stores, candy had been sold for years by small pharmacies, markets and special ice cream and candy stores. The F.W. Woolworth five and dime store had its own candy aisle, and that marketing ploy had a tremendous impact in putting candy on every main street in America.

Please enjoy my photomontage of the candy that was enjoyed and coveted by baby boomers and their families, and, please add your comments for everyone to read.