Penny Ante

A friend and co-worker got married last weekend. The most interesting station at the reception was the candy bar. In a corner of the room stood a table filled with jars containing a wide variety of penny candies, a smorgasbord of sweets.

Aside from a considerable sugar-buzz, this conglomerate of confections produced a pang of nostalgia. Being old enough to join AARP, I remember the small "Mom & Pop" stores that carried these tasty tidbits. The favorite stores in my hometown were Don's and Keefer's Korner. During school months, by 3:15pm lines of kids clutching nickels awaited their daily candy fix.

Swedish fish, Double Bubble, Mary Janes, Bit O'Honey, paper sheets covered in candy-buttons, atomic fireballs, wax bottles filled with sugary syrup - a veritable cornucopia of candy was crammed into eager mouths. By the 70s, these establishments began dying out. Today, the Internet is the largest purveyor of penny candy. While it's reassuring to be able to purchase these tactile memories of youth, ordering on-line and waiting for delivery doesn't capture the same ambiance of a local store and a queue of classmates. With ubiquitous inflation, a penny no longer suffices.

Some attribute the decline of penny candy's popularity to the inception of shopping malls and the demise of the small family-owned stores, some to the rise of mass-marketing. Browsing a book store, I came across "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy" by Richard Maybury. I expected an nostalgic romp into a world of delicious wonder. What I got was an economic treatise.

Written less onerously than most fiscal tomes; it still wasn't what I expected. Discussion of our free market system modeled on Austrian economics, comparisons of neoclassical and subjective theories of value and methodological individualism did not whet my appetite. I found solace, however, in a pound of gummy bears and some pixie sticks - as ever BB

"Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker

You can drink all the liquor down in Costa Rica.

Aint nobody's business, but my own." - Taj Mahal