The Undesirables

Halloween provides such a variety of sweet things for children to try. My favorites were always the pixie stix that usually ended up broken with the sweet tarty powder all over the inside of the bag and covering the other candies. For a few years when I was young, we enjoyed the wax lips, wax harmonicas, wax bottled liquids, etc. Wax was great, supposedly didn't harm the teeth and unusual for a while, then it wore off and they were everywhere and nobody wanted them. You can find them on the Internet still, if you want a blast from the past.

So it probably shouldn't be a surprise that the pictured above are the duds because as I remember they were the same when I was a kid. Who gives out these "yuck" black and orange wrapped taffy candies? Mary janes and bit-of-honey usually are last to be eaten (or instead disgarded). The butterscotch and varying colored spherical hard candies (especially the hot ones) are often rejected too. Dum dums are usually so numerous (though not very rewarding) but the upside, they make a great little treat (with a handle) for 2 year-olds. Even still after a dozen or so, the 2 year-olds will even turn their noses up at them (and you'll still have a bunch left over, with the wrappers off because they don't stay on very well). Tootsie rolls are often so numerous that they too are often last to go or are disgarded. An interesting tangent, in college I was required to take Econ 110 and there was a project where we were to pick a stock and fictiously invest in it and our grade would be based on the percentage growth over a two week period. After careful research, I chose Tootsie Roll and ended up getting the highest grade in the class for that project.

I was a little surprised that the little chico sticks were back in vogue from obscurity this year. This is similar to the stuff found inside a Butterfinger (not really my favorite, apparently not really anyone's favorite). They were bigger when I was young, about the size and shape of a cigar, but they were always really cheap compared to other candies. There's obviously a reason for that. Maybe they should go back into obscurity with wax lips and harmonicas.

You can probably never go wrong with chocolate (if anything Mom and Dad will plow through it if the kids won't). Kids always seem to love gum too. Then of course you have the unusuals, skeleton bones are always fun. Last year we handed out those gummy eye balls (see below), not really very yummy, but certainly fun to gross the girls out with.


I posted this especially picture for my Mom because she hates my eyeball picture...