1900s Exclusive! Retro Timeline Box

Size: 12 different samples in a 5 15/16" x 1" x 7 3/4" box

Fireballs (Food starch (corn), sucrose, carnauba wax, titanium dioxide for color, acacia (gum Arabic), and artificial flavors including capsicum and cinnamon), Jawbreakers (Sugar, Modified Food Starch (Corn),  Natural and Artificial Flavors, Carnauba Wax, Acacia (Gum Arabic), Titanium Dioxide (Color)Red 40 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, Yellow 6, Blue 1 Lake, and Blue 2 Lake) Charleston Chew ( Corn Syrup, Sugar, Palm Kernel and Palm Oil, Nonfat Dry Milk, Cocoa, Lactose, Milk Protein Concentrate, Egg Albumen, Artificial Flavor, Soy Lecithin, Soy Protein, Salt, Sodium Citrate), Lifesavers (Sugar, Corn Syrup, Natural Flavor, stearic acid) Anise Bullet (Sugar, Natural Anise Flavor, Artificial Color, Corn Syrup) Caramel Cream (Sugar, Corn Syrup,Whey Powder ,Palm Oil, Mono and Diglycerides, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Artificial Colors including FD&C Red 40, Yellow 5, and Blue 1, Soy Lecithin) Dubble Bubble (Sugar, Dextrose, Corn Syrup, Gum Base, Tapioca Dextrin, Titanium Dioxide, Confectioner's  Glaze, Carnauba Wax, Corn Starch, Artificial Flavors, Artificial Colors, (FD&C Red 40, Blue 1, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 3), and BHT) Chocolate Covered Peanuts (Peanuts, sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk, chocolate liquor, lecithin, vanillin ) and confectioner's glaze), Sourballs (Sugar, corn syrup, citric acid, artificial flavors FD&c red #40, yellow #5, blue #1) Zotz (Sugar, Corn syrup, Malic Acid, Sodium Bicarbonate, Tartaric Acid, Artificial flavors, Artificial Colors (FD&C Yellow 5, Red 40), Circus peanuts (Sugar, Corn Syrup, Gelatin, Pectin, Artificial Flavor, Color Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40), Lucky Charms (Sugar, Modified Food Strach, Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Contains Less Than 2% of Gelatin, Artificial Color (Red #40, Yellow #6, Yellow #5, Blue #1), Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Artificial Flavor, Natural Flavor)

The Secret Hiding Place of 20th Century Sweets

The secret hiding place of 20th century candy may be of no surprise to anyone who grow up in the 1900s. Candies were found – and given – from their grandmother’s purse. Some were retro. Some were even older than retro. Some have vanished. Some remain. As for the reasons why candy was so important…

The Unexpected Reasons Grandmothers Gave Kids Candy

Grandmothers and grandfathers, too, gave candy for a few surprising – and poignant – reasons. First candy had long been used as a treat, a medicine, or both. So, grandparents considered those butterscotch drops, Lifesavers, and other hard candies good for sore throats. Canada Mints, once known as “soft paste” medicines, were considered good for upset stomachs – my Grandfather used them to treats his ulcers. Chewing gum, from Teaberry to Double Mint, freshened the breath, cleaned the teeth, and also alleviated stomach distress.  Others, such as Circus Peanuts, were made for fun, fun, fun (later to be morphed into Lucky Charm cereal!).

Reason #2: People living in the first half of the 20th century had to deal with sugar shortages due to the Great Depression and two World Wars. No sugar – no candy. When candy returned after years of absence, it became a symbol of affluence, well-being, and a sign that all was right in the world. When grandparents gave their grandchildren candy it was a gift of all that and a symbol of love.

Susan’s Memory of Her Grandmother’s (and Her Grandmother’s Sisters!) Purse

I remember trips to visit my grandmother and her sisters in Boston. We usually started at my great-Aunt Eunice’s, whose apartment was on the third floor of a brick building, an immense and wonderfully sophisticated number of steps for a suburban kid such as me.  My grandmother and her sisters would sit on a couch, knitting and chatting, while the kids - my cousins, my brothers and I did our kid things, frequently involving comic books, bubble gum, and secrets.

 The living room, actually the living room couch, was the place to visit. Without exception, I’d ask my grandmother and her sisters for candy. The response was always the same: “Get my purse.” The purse was inevitably black, with a clasp, and within it a handkerchief, wallet and plenty of who-knows-what’s, and, more to the point, sour balls, Starlight Mints, and Lifesavers. They’d reach in and hand us as much as we wanted, with one, of course, for each of them. Then, candy in mouth, I would snuggle in beside my grandmother or my great-Aunt Helen. The knitting would stop so she could rub my back, my arm, or smooth my hair. And all in the world was right and all in the world was good.