Necco's!!!!!

Some things in life you relish every moment and hold on to each memory and then there are other things in life you simply try to survive through.  Law School was that for me – just a means to an end – something I had to just power through.  Of course, whenever I am in survival mode I tend to indulge my sweet tooth a bit and my good habits fall to the wayside. 

One thing I remember that during finals, writing my law review paper or generally just trying to keep up there was one candy that I would turn to in order to keep myself fueled, sane and going strong.  Necco’s!  Weird choice, isn’t it?  I imagine throughout law school chocolate was a big part of that along with the requisite drinking of Coke with the chocolate, but Necco’s stand out in my mind as being fundamental to my survival.

I remember sitting in the library one day quietly, or as quietly as you can crunching on a Necco, eating one wafer after another, always delighted when my particularly favorite color would appear – pink, yellow, and yes even the brown, chocolate ones!  While quietly enjoying my reverie I looked up and saw a fellow student staring rudely at me. I thought what the heck, but quickly realized my Necco habit was probably driving him nuts. Thankfully he got up and moved so I could go back to my studying – read a page, eat a wafer, read another page, have another, and so on.

As summer quietly turns to fall I find myself searching for a roll of Neccos. Now, for those of you who are just armchair candy lovers you won’t understand this next piece, but indulge me a bit… Neccos are the best when they are slightly soft. Several years ago Neccos came out as Halloween candy. These are smaller rolls individually wrapped inside a bigger bag.  That extra layer of protection kept the candies incredibly soft and absolutely perfect!  The first year I discovered the Halloween candy I bought several bags and enjoyed everyone last one (I doubt I shared these with anyone too). The next year I couldn’t find them anywhere. Someone said Walmart had them. I never shop at Walmart, but for Neccos I would and did!  But last year I couldn’t find them anywhere. Like an addict searching for its next fix, I actually went to several different Walmart’s because someone said they aren’t all alike – nothing!  I was devastated (I know that sounds severe, but trust me, it really bummed me out for several days).

Now that Halloween candy is already appearing in the stores, the search is on again for this year. Please drop me a line if you find them anywhere!  Meanwhile, my sweet baby girl Colleen bought me a roll and as I sat in the sun reading my book (a novel, mind you, no more law books for me) and enjoying the sweet wafers I noticed that the wafers were getting softer the longer I sat in the sun, which got me thinking…..

Violet Pastilles

Fast forward a few years, I discover scarves and long flowing dresses, I become more a child of air than of earth. I spend more days skipping school than attending school, I am a free spirit, a dancer that looks for reasons to pirouette through the woods, imagining the likes of Robin Hood or Puck from Midsummer’s Night Dreams. I lived this sort of enchanted, dreamlike life. I imagine every teenager feels that way – discovering new things every day and feeling like no one else knows what you know. It is a powerful, wonderful existence.

My group of friends would ditch out of school and drive to the Arboretum.  This is way before the Arboretum was a popular and structured place to visit. We were free to roam the woods to our heart’s content. We would grab beer and wind our way into the woods laughing and carrying on. As an introvert I would usually slip away from my group of friends and find a quiet spot to sit. My favorite resting was a fallen tree over a stream.  Picture Robin Hood jumping on a log to instruct his merry men – that is how I felt every time we would visit this spot – a spot I was certain no one else knew about! Those were happy days for sure.

At this same time, I was enchanted with everything Art Nouveau. I loved the intricate drawings, the long flowing hair and beautiful dresses. It was inspiring to me, I think that is why I gave up the grunge hippie apparel and started wearing dresses and scarves (I still love scarves today by the way!).  My boyfriend Jim, indulged my love of this period, by buying me countless Dover Fairy Tale books (Red Fairy Book, Blue Fairy Book, all different books with fairy tales in them! BTW, I still own these beautiful books so let me know if you would like to borrow them sometime!).

Because Jim of course knew about my sweet tooth he bought me these lovely little French candies called Violet Pastilles. These little round candies came in a tin with violets on the cover. The tin itself was beautiful and inside – delightful little candies that have the most delightful per-fumy taste that ends with a sensuous anise flavor. Whenever I opened a tin of Violet Pastilles I found myself swept into the past, imagining myself with beautiful long, complex hair with a crown of flowers around my head and wearing a lovely long flowing dress with huge bell sleeves. It is funny where a little piece of candy can take you!

Mallo Cups - Need I say anything? Simply perfection!!

Good & Plenty

I know I have already written about licorice, but Good & Plenty are a bit different than licorice, don’t you think? They have that soft, yet crunchy out layer of pink or white before you get to the licorice part – a bigger bang for your buck, if you will!  I recently picked up a box of Good & Plenty at the store (they were having a 10 for $10 special, and no, I didn’t buy 10 boxes of candy, I only bought two!  I do have some self-control after all).  As I poured out a handful of candy I thought of when I was younger and how I would spend a whole box full trying to determine if the pink ones tasted different than the white ones!  My childhood self swears they taste different, but the grownup me knows they don’t (they don’t, right?). As I was making my way through the box of candy I started thinking about parenting and how when it comes to raising our children we always want to be different than how our parents raised us but yet we are kind of the same too.

Being raised a Kennedy in a family of 9 plus a dog, a parakeet, multiple hamsters, and a handful of motorcycles, things were pretty relaxed. The house wasn’t spotless (just ask my mom about how after cleaning the bird cage one day the bird seed sprouted in the bathroom and grass started growing in the carpet). No one seemed to care we were too busy with life! There is another side of being a Kennedy though, and that is the “stiff upper lip” side. We weren’t an overly demonstrative family, yes we loved each other (most of the time) we didn’t always show it. I may love my siblings, but I don’t think I ever told them that (at least not when I was younger). And there were certain things you just didn’t talk about  - for example, illnesses, feminine hygiene, sadness, etc. I’ll never forget that when it came time to go buy my first bra my dad asked my mom where we were off too – the response – to go buy an “unmentionable.” Say what??

Fast forward to being a parent myself. Yes, admittedly, I have kept much of that relaxed nature of housekeeping (maybe not to the extent of growing bird seed in the bathroom), but I have worked hard to shed that layer of stand-off-ness. I hug my kids and tell them I love them as much as possible. It is natural and not forced. I think I have done a good job being a more open and honest parent than my parents, But when I see Steve, my sweet husband, with our kids I know I have miles to go. There is no conversation that he won’t have with our girls, no matter the topic. He loves our kids openly and honestly without reservation. There was a reason he was the stay-at-home parent more than just income potential, he is a natural. And while there at times when Stephanie is more like a Kennedy than a Budge, Steve is in her face saying give me a hug, and she does!

So there you go – when you open a box of candy, you never know where it will take you! Today it was about being a better parent and about love and openness with your children. What will you think of when you open a box of candy? Go find out, they are on sale – 10 for $10!

Variety is the Spice of Life!

I always have a steady supply of jelly belly’s in my purse and some type of chocolate nearby, but every now and then I’ll mix things up, like today, I am enjoying a nice big box of Mike and Ikes. But these aren’t just any Mike and Ikes, these are called “Red Rageous!” Imagine a box full of chewy fruit flavored candies in several different shades of red: Raspberry, Cherry, Fruit Punch, Strawberry and Watermelon! Totally delicious and hitting all the major red fruit categories!  The Mike and Ike brand does a good job by offering many different varieties of their chewy candies, which made me think of that old saying “Variety is the Spice of Life!”

I believe variety is not only the spice of life but is also essential to a happy one. I’m not talking about changing partners or anything like that I am referring to trying new things, changing careers, not always wearing the same color clothes or the same shade of eye shadow.  I grew up studying dance which some how morphed into becoming a paralegal which later led me to law school to a career I never dreamed of having, but one that I loved. I look forward to the future and wonder what career is next? Similarly with hobbies – I used to play the piano, but dream of playing the harp. I know that at some point in the future I will play the harp, in fact I dreamed about it last night. I love studying languages and while I am not fluent in any of them I have studied Russian, French, Japanese and Hawaiian. I don’t care if I am fluent or not, I simply enjoy stretching my brain.

 

I guess what I am saying is that while there are always constants in your life, like your spouse, your children, your family, don’t settle and do the same thing your whole life long. Try new things, experiment, reinvent yourself often, do things you have always dreamed of doing, but never thought possible.  And of course, try new flavors of candies, I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Summer and Salt Water Taffy

Salt water taffy forever reminds me of that passage from being a kid to crossing the divide to becoming a full-blown teenager! The summer between 8^th and 9^th grade my aunt and uncle invited me to Cape Cod for the month of August to help take care of their two daughters. First, the simple fact I was asked to accompany them over my older, and much more sophisticated sister sent shivers of delight up my spine. Then in anticipation of spending the month on the beach my mom bought me a two-piece bathing suit – yes, a bikini!!  I’ll never forget it, it was a lovely shade of pale yellow with little flowers. The double bonus, it made my sister incredibly jealous – as being the oldest she was the one who was supposed to experience everything first, including wearing a two-piece! 

Cape Cod was simply beyond words – the house was just a few yards from the beach. We would spend hours on the beach swimming out to the sand bar, body surfing, just hanging out. It was fabulous!  I’ll never forget walking down the beach in my cute two-piece bathing suit and being whistled by two boys who even ran up to talk to me. I was confused – why were these boys (clearly older than me) talking to me? This was my first foray into dealing with the opposite sex, which I failed miserably at then, and admittedly throughout high school and beyond! (I was always thick-headed when it came to flirting). Still it felt strangely exciting and forbidden at the same time.

But what I remember most from this vacation was my first taste of salt water taffy!  I’ll never will forget it, we were walking in town and stopped into a country store. My uncle bought me a bag of salt water taffy. Here were these bit-sized pieces of multi-color chewy taffy wrapped in pieces of white paper. Each piece was better than the next – banana, strawberry, vanilla, licorice, every imaginable flavor. I was totally hooked, in love and craved more. From then on, every opportunity I would stop back at that quaint little store and buy another bag of salt water taffy. Funny, thinking back the excitement of traveling first class on an airplane, wearing a two-piece bathing suit, being chatted up by boys are all diminished by the memory of tearing into a piece of chewy taffy!

To this day, each summer I look forward with great anticipation to the arrival of those bit-sized, brightly colored tasty pieces of salt water taffy!  And with each bit I am taken back to that summer after 8^th grade feeling ever so grown up in my sweet yellow two-piece bathing suit (like any good Catholic girl, I still have a hard time calling it a bikini – good girls simply didn’t wear bikinis!).

Summer!!!!

I come from a family of 7 kids – 4 boys and 3 girls. Growing up my brothers were very rambunctious, you know the type – the smelly, noisy messy, teasing kind. It is no wonder I ended up an introvert. Summer would come and the gaggle of us Kennedy kids would be home together with nothing but time to get in each other’s way.  I loved finding a place to hide out, somewhere to escape to, just to have time to myself. One of my favorite escapes was riding my bike to the little grocery store not far from our house. Back in the 60’s when I was growing up there were still family run grocery stores – the kind where the store was downstairs and the family lived upstairs. There was one such grocery store near us on Williston Road – one that was easy to get to without having to ride on busy streets, which was strictly forbidden. I don’t remember its name, to me it was always simply the candy store. Right next to the counter were rows and rows of candy, with the lowest row chock full of every imaginable penny candy!

I would save my pennies or even snitch one or two from my mom’s purse when she wasn’t looking (sorry Mom!) Once I had a few pennies I would jump on my bike (the kind that was one speed with foot brakes) and head out full of anticipation of the adventure and the treats waiting for me. My route never varied, I would head up Tonkawood Road to Robinwood Drive, hang a left and cruise through the back streets until I hit Williston Road. I swear 40 years later I could easily take that same route without hesitation, I knew it so well.  Off I would ride through the intertwining streets to arrive at the grocery store. They had this fantastic selection of penny candy. I would dream about what I wanted to choose – of all the choices, tootsie rolls, taffy, waxed lips, pixie sticks – I would invariably choose candy lipstick. For those of you who don’t know, candy lipstick was shaped just like a tube of lipstick, surrounded in gold foil. Naturally, it was bright red and had this fabulous cherry taste.  I would lick the “tube” and put on lipstick before biting into the soft, creaming deliciousness.  Oh, how I wished they still made that penny candy today, there are imitations of course, but nothing matches that red, sweet cherry lipstick in its gold wrapper!

As I grew older I was allowed to ride my bike on busier streets, so instead of going to the little candy store I would ride my bike up Minnetonka Blvd. through the back roads to the Rexall Drug store. Here you could buy nickel Hersey bars, or a 5 cent box of red hots (yes, I do love my red hots!). But best of all Rexall Drug had a fountain counter in their store where for a dime you could sit on the stools and drink strawberry or vanilla phosphates – total heaven!  These were also solo bike rides, just me and my bike. To this day I still seek out time to spend alone. Of course today, my bike has been replaced with my sweet ride, but undoubtedly it involves making a special trip to find something sweet!