Penny Candy Obsession

I love candy and have the cavities to prove it. Medical journal articles could be written about the size of my sweet tooth but let’s just say the evidence is clear enough.

My dentist was probably onto something when he started rewarding his young patients with Trident Sugarless Gum instead of candy. It was a losing battle though, because candy was everywhere and it was cheap.

Every classroom teacher in my parochial school sold candy at recess. Watermelon slices, coconut bars and fireballs would hardly qualify by today’s food of minimum nutritional restrictions for schools. We were actually doing God’s work by consuming an extra candy bar or two becaue the “profits” went to the missions.

Jackie Granger and I strayed from God’s work one day in fourth grade when found boxes of candy stored in the coat closet and helped ourselves. In retrospect, leaving the wrappers in the closet instead of my desk would have been a better strategy.

Some mission is South America was a little short that month. The yardstick we were whacked with was probably an inch shorter as well.

We rarely had candy in the house except for holidays. Boxes of incredible chocolate from Holstein’s (site of the final Soprano’s episode) would be set aside by my mother “for company.” It was painful to smell the homemade candy and not devour it. Once the relatives arrived and dessert came around, I stayed through the boring adult conversation just to score a few extra pieces.

Once the holiday was over, the extra candy wouldn’t last a day, even when my mother hid it in the linen drawer. My father used a different approach to protecting his sweets. He just bought licorice treats, especially the black licorice assortments that kids ate in desperation when the chocolate was gone.

Halloween was a gold mine. Our haul was no less than two grocery bags (paper of course) full of candy including stacks of Nestles, Hersheys and Snicker’s bars. Once the good stuff was gone, we picked at the leftover stash of Good and Plenty, Chuckles, Dots, and Neco Wafers that had a shelf life of several years.

Once we were old enough to walk to the newsstand alone, we squandered our allowance on candy that would make a dentist cringe. Charleston Chews, Sugar Daddy’s and Jaw Breakers were popular choices but my favorite was Bonomo’s Turkish Taffy. The candy was so hard and chewy that kids smashed them on the sidewalk before eating them.

An old fashioned country store called Rowe-Manse Emporium in nearby Clifton was the motherlode for young candy lovers. They sold penny candy out of glass jars for a penny! For one dollar we could fill a small paper bag with candy that could last all afternoon – or less. Walking home from Rowe-Manse, I once consumed fifty malt balls on a dare from the previously mentioned criminal, John Granger.

Like them or not, some candies just had more sizzle than others. Atomic Fireballs, Pop Rocks, Lemonheads and extremely sour Warheads all provided entertainment and oral torture for youngsters.

The Flipside - February 2007

Milton Bradley Comes Out Of The Closet

Absolutely the best part of any friend’s house in the 1960’s was the game closet. Television advertising must have been very effective because every family owned shelves filled with classic board games like Monopoly, Clue and Parchesi.

In the days before Atari, board games filled many an hour of our childhood. My friend Gary Costa and I often hoped for rain during the summer so we could stay inside, play games and drink Tang.

A rainy summer day in sixth grade might start with a game of Trouble. The game was slow but the Pop-O-Matic dice made it all worthwhile. Later we might move into a game of Life before heading to the basement to run the slot cars for a break.

Eventually we’d get bored and start rummaging deeper into the game closet. Most of the game boxes on the bottom of the pile had flattened out and spilled their pieces. Sorry pieces mixed with Monopoly hotels and caroms on the floor but at least we knew where to look if game parts were missing. Games at the bottom of the closet were either too easy or too hard but that didn’t stop us from pulling them out.

There was no shame in a game of Chutes and Ladders as long as out friends at school never found out. On the very bottom was Scrabble in that familiar dark brown box. I am convinced that our parents played Scrabble in the days before kids but hadn’t had a peaceful evening in the twelve years since. That explains why it worked its way to the bottom of the game closet stack – even lower than Candy Land.

It is naïve to think that board games were a product of the 60’s. The earliest games are 2,500 years old, according to the somewhat reliable Wikipedia. As for the classic games we played, many were golden oldies by the 1960’s. Those include Chutes and Ladders (1943), Candy Land (1949), Yahtzee (1956), Monopoly (1935), and Scrabble (1938).

The Game of Life has an especially long history. A lithographer named Milton Bradley created The Checkered Game of Life in 1861 as a new game to be played on a checker board. The company survived and 100 years later The New Game of Life was introduced (and endorsed by Art Linkletter).
Board game companies have fallen on hard times in these days of video games. Hasbro purchased Milton Bradley in 1984. The company, which was best known for Mr. Potato Head and GI Joe, also gobbled up Coleco, Tonka, Kenner and Parker Brothers in the 1990’s.
There is no research to back this up, but I would guess that most baby boomers have a game closet of their own. They probably scavenged games from their childhood or repurchased them in the hopes that their kids would find as much pleasure in playing them as they did. Eventually Nintendo and its competitors won the kids’ hearts and minds but those board games wait silently in the closet.

Our game closet fits the description. Classics like Life, Clue and Monopoly are stuffed under Mousetrap and various editions of Trivial Pursuit. Unlike most household toys, we can’t seem to let go of those childhood games so there they sit.

Maybe it’s time for the PS3 to power down and for Milton Bradley to come out of the closet.
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The Flipside - October 2008

Sixth Grade Research Saves Lives

Life is full of questions. When we were young, our parents and teachers seemed to have all the answers. As we grew older we relied more on the limited knowledge of our friends which was where things start going wrong. After all, there were questions that we would never ask an adult but our friends were always willing to offer an opinion.

“I wonder if this will burn” would be one of those questions. It might make a great segment for the David Letterman Show but no good can come from two eleven year-old boys discovering the answer.

Fully aware of the “don’t play with matches” campaign from Fire Safety Month, Billy Garrabrandt and I tested the combustibility of an old canvas chair – in my garage. Much to our delight and then horror, the old dried out chair flared up almost instantly.

Our immediate reaction was to find something to put the fire out in the unattached garage. There was no water and racing into the yard to run a hose into the garage would likely cause alarm from my mother. Our solution was to smother the fire with a fifty pound bag of dry cement that we found in the corner. Cement powder was everywhere but the real threat of burning down our garage was abated.

For the first time ever, we voluntarily cleaned up the garage and carefully trimmed the burnt seat of the chair hoping the grownups wouldn’t notice. We then threw the chair out with all the garbage from our cleaning frenzy. It was one of the few times that we didn’t get caught doing something stupid but I did admit the whole incident to my mother thirty years later.

Scientific discovery was at the heart of many theories that Billy Garrabrandt and I attempted to prove. We tested Newton’s theories of gravity by tossing objects out of our third floor window. Seeking an answer to the age old question “what will happen if I throw this out of the window?” we dropped airplane models, army men and even food out of my attic window.
Years later we reversed the process to answer the question “what can we sneak into the attic?” but that’s a story for another column.

“Do you think it will explode?” was the most dangerous but also the most entertaining question that Billy and I struggled with. Chemistry sets were still the rage and enterprising youngsters could purchase refills of ingredients at the local hobby store. We pooled our meager resources and bought sulphur, charcoal and potassium nitrate to play with. With absolutely no thought of the danger involved, we made gunpowder and stuffed it into objects that we detonated. I don’t believe we ever created an explosion but running at full speed away from a lit fuse was better than any amusement park ride.

There were so many unanswered questions that Billy and I struggled to answer. Each of them would have made an excellent sixth grade science project.

“I wonder if this will make him throw up?” “What will happen if the dog drinks beer?” “How long will it take my two year-old nephew to learn a swear word?” “How far will car model parts travel when exploded with a cherry bomb?” “If a bus is passing by at 35 mph, what trajectory is needed to reach it with a snowball and still leave enough time to run away?”

There were no marble lab books, but Billy and I solved these and many other puzzling questions of childhood. I am not sure if humanity is better for it but it sure was fun.

The Flipside Column - November 2007

Playlists For the Boomer Generation

We may look back affectionately on our record collections but nothing beats the quality and accessibility of digital music. Online music services like I-Tunes and Rhapsody give us access to music we remember but lost and even more tunes we never knew existed. For almost forty years, rock music fans have consumed their music through albums, 8-tracks, cassettes or CD’s. Albums are still released but the digital teens of today are more inclined to pick and download their own playlists. Listening to a new compact disc from end to end is just so “nineties.” With that thought in mind, I offer the following playlists for your listening pleasure. I admit up front that they show my bias for 60’s and 70’s music. Put together a few of these playlists yourself; load up your IPOD, sit back and enjoy the ride. Best Soul You Haven’t Heard (Take a break from Motown): Billy Stewart – I Do Love You; Little Richard – Milky White Way; Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come; Solomon Burke – Cry To Me; Wilson Pickett – Hey Jude; James Brown – Begging Begging; Ray Charles –Mess Around; Elvis Presley – Reconsider Baby; Erma Franklin – Piece of My Heart; Otis Redding – Respect. Heavy Seventies Revisited (Tune up your air guitar for this set): Alice Cooper-School’s Out; Aerosmith – Dream On; Jump! – Van Halen; Black Sabbath – Iron Man; Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear The Reaper; Ted Nugent – Cat Scratch Fever; Grand Funk Railroad - We’re An American Band; Joe Walsh – Life’s Been Good; Meat Loaf – Bat Out of He--; Deep Purple – Smoke On The Water. Ten Country Classics Worth Revisiting (Corny country is cool once again): Buck Owens – Act Naturally; George Jones – The Race Is On; Tammy Wynette – I Don’t Want To Play House; Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn – After The Fire Is Gone; Faron Young – Hello Walls; Floyd Cramer – Last Date; Merle Haggard – Mama Tried; Johnny Cash – Get Rhythm; Johnny Horton – Golden Rocket; Wanda Jackson – Let’s Have a Party. Ten Guilty Pleasure Songs (Sing alongs when you’re alone): Chad & Jeremy – A Summer Song; Jonathan King – Everyone’s Gone To The Moon; The Vogues – Turn Around Look At Me; Association – Cherish; Cowsills – The Rain, The Park & Other Things; Spanky & Our Gang – Like To Get To Know You; Carpenters – We’ve Only Just Begun; Tom Jones – It’s Not Unusual; Mamas & Papas – Monday Monday; Jackson Five – Got To Be There. Ten Beatle Songs Worth Revisiting (This list is only about 50 songs too short): There’s A Place; I’m Happy Just To Dance With You; Don’t Bother Me; Honey Don’t; Bad Boy; In My Life; It’s All Too Much ; I Want You; Revolution 1; One After 909. Ten Unlikely Number One Hits (Somebody must have bought these records, did you?): New Vaudeville Band – Winchester Cathedral; Chuck Berry – My Ding A Ling; Ringo –Lorne Greene; The Singing Nun – Dominique; Kyu Sakamoto – Sukiyaki; Ray Stevens – The Streak; Sammy Davis Jr. – Candy Man; Paul Mariat – Love Is Blue; David Rose – The Stripper; Frank and Nancy Sinatra – Something Stupid. Ten Maximum Volume Albums (Turn your amplifier up to 11 for these): Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin I; King Crimson – Court of the Crimson King; Allman Brothers – Live At Fillmore East; Derek & The Dominos – Layla; Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon; The Who – Quadrophenia; Santana – Abraxys; Little Feat – Waiting For Columbus; U2 – Rattle & Hum. Dust Off These Oldies (Under the radar in the late 50’s and early 60’s): Ronnie Self – Ain’t I’m A Dog; Chuck Berry – Too Much Monkey Business; Ivan – Real Wild Child; Don & Juan – What’s Your Name; Jive Five – What Time Is It; Elvis Presley – Guitar Man; Jerry Lee Lewis –Meat Man; Janis Martin – My Boy Elvis; Vito & The Salutations – Unchained Melody. Send comments to flipside@tx.rr.com or post here.

Favorite Girl Toys of the Sixties

Ok gals - what was your favorite toy / doll as a kid? I received several comments after my list of great toys from the 60's appeared in "The Flipside." Yes - it was a "bunch of guy stuff" as one person observed. I will offer equal time - just send me your favorite toy or doll story.

What were your favorite Christmas gifts?

Here are some of my favorite gifts from the 60's. What were your favorites?

Roy Rogers Western Town (1960) I don’t remember receiving this gift but it outlasted almost every toy from my early days. The tin town, which included a saloon and barber shop, served as the location for many battles between cowboys, Indians, Germans and the Allies.

The Night Before Christmas (1962) The year I learned to read, my mother started a tradition of buying one special book each Christmas. This yellowed book still rests on the shelf and it’s been a pleasure carrying on the tradition of a Christmas book with my own kids.

Tonka Jeep Surrey (1962) – Had I asked for this gift from Santa, I probably would have preferred the Army Jeep. Instead, my mother picked a pink Jeep with the fringe on top. It was still one of my most memorable gifts because it was the very first one I “found” in the house thus dispelling the Santa myth.

Matchbox BP Service Station (1965) – My life was complete when I had a service station to service my growing Matchbox Car collection. The equally awesome Matchbox fire station arrived on my birthday.

Schwinn Roadmaster (1966) I lusted for the new Stingray banana seat bicycle but was still thrilled with the sedan version – a Roadmaster. It had dual baskets for carrying newspapers and baseball bats and I probably put 100,000 miles on it before retirement.

Creepy Crawlers Thingmaker (1967) – I really, really wanted this toy. The television commercials were endless and effective. All three of my friends got the same toy that year. Long after the thrill of creating rubber bugs wore off, we entertained ourselves by melting our toys on the dangerous hot plate.

Rawlings Football (1968) – Every piece of sporting equipment in my house started with my brother and got handed down to me – until the year I got my own football. It didn’t help improve my game but at least kids wanted me on their team.

Panasonic Cassette Recorder (1969) This device changed everything. Now I could hold the microphone next to the radio and record my favorite songs. Digital recording was only about twenty years away.

Kenner’s Spirograph (1966) Nerd art! In the days before Facebook, this art and gear contraption was the main reason kids spent hours in their rooms.

US Navy Peacoat (1972) Forget Hollister and Aeropostale – the Army-Navy store was the favorite destination for trendy high schoolers in the early 70’s. I used my Christmas money to buy a real Navy issue peacoat which weighed ten pounds and smelled like a Nova Scotia chowder house but hey – it was cool.

Alfred E. Neuman vs. Goofus and Gallant

One magazine that I subscribed to was MAD Magazine. With a one-year subscription of only $5 CHEAP , it is no surprise the satire magazine was so popular. I learned more about current events and movie plots from MAD than any newspaper. I saved many of them and can still appreciate the humor forty years later.


The one magazine I am proud to say I never subscribed to was Highlights. My dentist had stacks of them and little else for kids to read. Maybe he felt it was cheaper to sedate kids with news from The Timbertoes instead of Novocain.The highlight of Highlights was of course Goofus and Gallant.



Read the whole column.