My mother and her sisters loved candy.
They knew every candy store within a 50 mile radius.
Candy was a staple of life.
Their food pyramid was built with blocks of sugar surrounded with a halo of shimmering chocolate.
I suspect that their nutritional understanding and cravings were skewed by unfortunate collective food
insecurity during the Great Depression.
Easter was an especially valued holiday since it revolved around the gathering and possession of
candy.
One year in the mid 1970s my mother and her sisters sent me to the
Joseph Horne Store in Natrona Heights, PA.
I was newly licensed to drive and honored to be the purchasing agent for the annual chocolate haul.
My mission was to bring back 92 small chocolate Easter eggs from the candy section of that store.
Yes you read that correctly.
92 eggs.
I had a hand written list of what they each wanted.
Fruit and nut (yuck), peanut butter melt away (yum), maple fudge, coconut cream.
And some other flavors that only the 1970s could conjure up.
I approached the candy counter with some trepidation and a little excitement.
The clerk was momentarily shocked by my request if her eyes were any indication.
She disappeared but came back with another worker.
To my delight I was assigned my very own Easter egg consultant who packed and bagged
my order with confidence and efficiency.
And no judgement.
92 sounds like a lot.
Divided up between the 5 sisters and their families these eggs might have lasted a few days.
But what a divine few days those were!
I love your story! My sisters and I are the same way, having been raised by a mother who also had a sugar/chocolate craving and would take us all to Fanny May Candies whenever we had to go downtown, and give us boxes of it for Valentine’s Day every year. One sister still sends me a box every year.
My local race book has a woman on the door whose job it is to check IDs of those who look like they might be underage. It also has slot machines in addition to racehorse betting, and so, is off-limits to minors. All of us horseplayers agree that one of the best times of year is Easter, since the woman buys little chocolate eggs, and makes sure everybody gets one when they come in. And if you’re nice, you might get a few more!
My mother and her sisters loved candy.
They knew every candy store within a 50 mile radius.
Candy was a staple of life.
Their food pyramid was built with blocks of sugar surrounded with a halo of shimmering chocolate.
I suspect that their nutritional understanding and cravings were skewed by unfortunate collective food
insecurity during the Great Depression.
Easter was an especially valued holiday since it revolved around the gathering and possession of
candy.
One year in the mid 1970s my mother and her sisters sent me to the
Joseph Horne Store in Natrona Heights, PA.
I was newly licensed to drive and honored to be the purchasing agent for the annual chocolate haul.
My mission was to bring back 92 small chocolate Easter eggs from the candy section of that store.
Yes you read that correctly.
92 eggs.
I had a hand written list of what they each wanted.
Fruit and nut (yuck), peanut butter melt away (yum), maple fudge, coconut cream.
And some other flavors that only the 1970s could conjure up.
I approached the candy counter with some trepidation and a little excitement.
The clerk was momentarily shocked by my request if her eyes were any indication.
She disappeared but came back with another worker.
To my delight I was assigned my very own Easter egg consultant who packed and bagged
my order with confidence and efficiency.
And no judgement.
92 sounds like a lot.
Divided up between the 5 sisters and their families these eggs might have lasted a few days.
But what a divine few days those were!
I don’t think it even crossed my mind.
It was my first Big Important Mission in the car!
I did not want to screw anything up and lose privileges.
As a kid in Baltimore, our Aunt H would always get a monster size Rheb’s Sherbet Egg in dark chocolate. Just looking at the box made your teeth hurt, but, oh, so good!
I can’t remember.
It will remain a mystery.
Some of the families were more economically stretched than others.
Each family had a different number of children and likes/dislikes so that may have been a factor.
Family one: 5 children
Family two: 4 children
Family three: 3 children
Family four: 2 children
Family five: 1 child
My mother also had seven brothers with even more children.
I don’t recall how the brothers (my uncles) procured their festive Easter goodies lol!
Round down to 6 eggs per kid and there’s 2 eggs left. A two egg payment for the egg procurer, maybe? Or maybe a couple kids who were extra good that year got an extra egg.
Or, it sounds like maybe some of the kids got more eggs than others depending on the economic situation or the like / dislike factor.
