A Fond Farewell to Candy Cigarettes: "Today is the first day of an America without candy cigarettes. Banned by a smoking prevention law prohibiting candy and 'fruit-flavored' cigarettes, the badass big brother of the Pez dispenser is officially contraband."I can remember exactly how they tasted.
12 comments:
Ah, the walks down to the drugstore. My mom, the preacher's wife, was always afraid we'd come home with these--and stand outside the church with the deacons 'smoking' ours while they sent up burnt offerings in the churchyard after worship was over.
But sometimes we were good, we got a box of red hots instead (which we proceeded to empty in total into our mouths, trying not to cry with the heat of cinnamon candy).
Me, too. Had no idea they were still on the market. Lots of candy then was strange-those wax bottles with sugar water, those strips with pink dots. Wax lips.
I remember how these tasted too, and I loved them. Whether or not they convinced me to graduate to Marlboros when I was 12 is a matter of debate, though. Life was full of smokers then and I wanted to emulate them. These were still being sold in some places like candy shops or places that sell antiques, etc. I just saw them in a candy shop in Old Town San Diego a few weeks ago.
And there were the "toy" cigarettes that blew baby powder instead of smoke. Back in the day, they were a major accessory for for the super-cool eight year old.
I think the ban is for the candy flavored & otherwise flavored cigarettes. Candy cigarettes are still available many places - but called candy sticks instead - less resemblance to the real thing now.
I remember these with fondness. The only place my brother & I could get these was at the local movie theater. We had great fun pretending to be grown-ups.
Just watched another old movie last week (Laura). I'm amazed at the amount of smoking and drinking that takes place in those old movies. It's very different today. Did people really smoke & drink that much? Or just in certain areas of the country?
They really smoked and drank that much. Or at least that's my memory.
I remember these too. You reckon there are some folks hoarding them still?
Back in the 50s, these helped me look suave at the age of seven. I still remember sticking two of them in my mouth and then handing one to the girl next to me on the swingset.
Dan's story wins.
I remember buying them but not what they tasted like.
When I couldn't get one lit I gave up on them.
The bubble gum ones were better.
The Popeye candy cigarettes (now sticks) taste mostly like cornstarch, I think. I'd forgotten about the bubble gum cigs. Norby has reminded me of chocolate cigs. Atrocious "chocolate" with a very think white paper wrapping. I tried them all.
Actually, there's an update on the site you linked to, and following all the links tells us that candy cigarettes have not been banned, but candy-flavoured cigarettes were banned a year ago.
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