I never really forgot it, just couldn’t find it anytime I bothered to look for it over the years.
A few weeks ago, I discovered halva at a local walmart. Just the one, I’ve checked around at others and not seen it at any of them so far.
I hadn’t had halva since I was a kid and my Gpa used to get these huge (to my childish eyes) blocks of it from someone around here who actually made it. It was a rare and much liked treat.
Now I can enjoy it again.
What is the treat from your childhood that you rediscovered in adulthood?
Necco wafers. I enjoyed them as a kid, but moved away from them as I was exposed to more intense candies like Snickers bars. Now as an adult, I find them pretty good, and can actually get my sweet cravings satisfied by just 2 or 3 of them. The chocolate ones are particularly nice. The local Tractor Supply store has them.
When I was a kid, my Italian grandparents used to dunk hard cinnamon toast in their coffee. I’m guessing it was all they could find that was similar to biscotti back then. For me, my grandma would slather it with peanut butter and give me a mug of coffee with lots of sugar and milk in it for dunking. Over the years, I kind of forgot about it but then a while back something made me think of it. I now have the exact same thing for breakfast on the weekends. I love it!
Those cheap gummy candies that look like cherries and taste like sugary wax. My mom wanted a deal, I didn’t really like them, but ate them anyway for a decade or so.
Now I buy them for my kids and steal a bag every now and then to remind me of childhood.
The junkshop Five Below has a decent selection of candy and snacks but I definitely spotted Neccos there. I can’t stand them myself but would probably sneak a few when no one was looking.
Chico Sticks. I remember paying a nickel for them at the gas station where we filled up the air in our bike tires. And a Coke from a real Coke bottle vending machine for a dime. You pulled it out and popped the top and went to town on them both. We hung out and watched the mechanics work on cars until we were finished and they shoed us away. Get outta here kids.
They now make sugar free version of both, which I find very pleasing.
Growing up in northern Virginia, halvah was rare and expensive. Dad would buy us a large slice each Hannukah. When we moved to Pennsylvania, it was much easier to find Joyva brand halva at deli’s and stores with a large Jewish clientele. Then I moved to northeast Philadelphia. The only supermarket in walking distance was a Soviet market. They had many varieties and brands of halva- though it was called “helvassi” on the English labels.
As I have said before, my Bubby owned a corner store with a large candy counter. I had at least one of every variety. I really loved the cherry caramel that came in a silver wrapper and looked like lipstick. I have only ever found them at two other places. A diner in New Jersey with a candy counter and To The Moon, a store selling mostly candy but some other fun stuff too in Florida. Last time I was at To The Moon, I asked why they were out of it and when they would get more. I was heartbroken when the owner told me the company no longer made it.
I highly recommend To The Moon. They have a truly huge variety of candies. They have an excellent selection of premium and novelty sodas. All the staff are very helpful, knowledgeable and friendly
ETA
Junkshop?! I love Five Below! Besides the junk food, I find their merchandise to be very good quality for the price. I bought hardcover editions of Weird Pennsylvania and Weird New Jersey there. I have bought all kinds of great gifts for friends. I bought black gloves with white fingertips. The gloves contain LED’s of various colors which can be made to blink in various patterns. They were wonderful. I had to throw out the gloves and most of my other clothes when I moved out of my first apartment due to toxic mold.
Lol, that’s how I meant it, too. Fun, timekilling, thought-provoking, colorful blinky junk. I did strike out there a few weeks ago looking for (try to guess!) sparklers for a harebrained fire starting idea.
I used to work with a woman from India who would make a big batch of halva every year for Diwali and she would always bring me some in a little ziploc bag. I never had it until I was an adult but I do miss it!
When I was a little boy, I’d watch my grandpa dunk his toast into his coffee, so I did the same with mine, but into my orange juice. I rarely have either now, but if no one is around, I’ll still do it.
I guess we just have different definitions of “junk”. On Roosevelt Boulevard in northeast Philadelphia, there is shopping center. The Shoprite there has a kosher section that is literally larger than any of the apartments I have lived in. There is a Joann’s. Soon it will disappear. There was (I don’t know if it is still there) an 89 Cents store. I went in there once. It was filled with merchandise of extremely low quality. Nothing I saw was worth eighty nine cents. I have been to numerous antique and collectable stores filled with stuff no sane person would pay more than five dollars for.
OTOH
Five Below sells tornado tubes. They come with instructions and a tiny plastic cow. I was overjoyed to see them when I visited a Five Below in January. I couldn’t find my tornado tube. This came in a box, with instructions and a cow and was only one dollar! I have a metal kazoo I bought there long ago. The two Weird USA books I mentioned were well worth the price even when nearly all of the information in them was available on the website. That website is gone now. I am very glad I bought those books.
Almost none of the merchandise at Five Below can be described as useful, or necessary. But, I would never call it junk.
Not quite what the OP is asking, but there’s an Italian restaurant in the town where I grew up that offered all-you-can-eat spaghetti on Mondays. When I was on my high school swim team in the mid 90s, we took frequent advantage of this deal. This past summer when I was visiting my parents, we went to that restaurant on a Monday, and they still offer the same deal! I ate two servings, which is the same amount that I could eat in high school as a hungry teenage boy after swim practice.
Wow, I remember having those once as a little kid (from a vending machine at National airport (DCA)) and loving them. Many years later, I encountered them again and it was a feast of nostalgia. It might well be over 30 years since the second encounter.
Candy Raisins
The company that makes them keeps going out of business and/or gets sold. Wiki last reports the company closed for good in 2023 but their facebook page recently this year said a new owner plans to revive them.
My dad was an alcoholic and a guilty one at that so he ALWAYS got us something, either toys or candy, from the convenience store when he stopped to buy beer. He often chose Necco, which I didn’t particularly LOVE but I came to like. The chocolate ones are definitely the best.
Now I find myself craving them every so often and will buy them whenever I see them. I just picked up a pack last month (of chocolate) and they were indeed tasty. And they make me think of my dad.
Mostly I would like to rediscover the kid who was not a Type 2 diabetic and didn’t have TMJD, and could just go to town on whatever candy tickled my fancy. These days I have to have self control and I do not like it!
I was having a tough time losing weight, especially because I worked in a college where every other office had a reception desk filled with donuts or muffins. So I started keeping a roll of Neccos in my pocket. I’d pop one of those instead of a donut and keep my calorie count down.
The chocolate ones are particularly nice.
Did you know the original company went out of business? The new ones are made in Mexico (uh, oh, better stock up before tariffs hit), and they purposely made the brown ones more chocolatey.
Which does not mean they have a lot of flavor. It’s just that the Taste To Chalkiness ratio is improved a teence.
