Who sabotaged the Candy Corn?

By

Gerry Niskern

Have you noticed a difference in the Halloween candy this year? Come on, admit it. You know you’ve been sampling.  It’s our duty to check it out for the kids. Right?

The candy corn has changed. It doesn’t taste like it did when we were kids. Then again, I’ve heard grumbling about other favorites like Red Vines, Snickers, and lots of others that we used to hope would get tossed into our Trick or Treat sacks.

Let’s face it. After all the shopping for costumes, including the agonizing over Star Wars or Bat Man, Elsa or the current popular  princess, and then trudging  thru the neighborhood, the exhausted  parents deserve their reward. They should get to look over the kid’s loot and confiscate a favorite or two.

Actually, a lot of candy that we all loved as kids has changed. A friend of mine, who is quite the connoisseur of candy, tells me that the little pink hearts we all loved on Valentine’s Day has changed too. And don’t get her started on Red Vines. She remembers when she was five and the family dog ate the Red Vines from her “hard earned” Trick or Treat loot. She was so angry she kicked at the poor dog and broke the glass Arcadia door instead. A really long Time out without her bag of candy to console her was no fun at all!

I remember one Halloween years ago when the kid’s daddy walked in the door with a stack of boxes. “I bought regular candy bars like I always wished I would get when I was trick or treating as a kid.” He volunteered to stay home with our new born while I took our little Chinese Coolie girl out. Guess what? When we got home he said he hadn’t had one single doorbell ringer. How could that be with our neighborhood loaded with children? He said he would hear voices and footsteps, and then they would fade away.

We solved the puzzle when we opened the door and found the “Shhhhh! baby sleeping” sign that had been left on the door after nap time. It was a few years late, but Dad got his wish after all.

As for the change in the candy corn, I speak as somewhat of an expert. While my mother did her weekly food shopping when I was a kid, I stood staring at the penny candy case in our grocery store and agonized over how to spend my penny each week, but always ended up asking for a penny’s worth of candy corn. In my expert opinion I think the corn used to have the tiniest taste of salt. Nowadays Candy Corn has a cloying, sweeter taste, without that tang that gave it character. What do you think?

Has your childhood favorite changed?