A cherry Tootsie Pop carries a memory before anyone even takes the first bite.
The wrapper, color, shape, and familiar flavor are instantly recognizable to generations of Americans.
For a child, a piece of candy could represent independence—the ability to choose something with a few coins earned from chores, saved from an allowance, or found through one of childhood’s little opportunities.
The candy disappears. The memory of choosing it can remain.
From the Artist:
As kids, we'd ride our bikes along M-29 looking for pop and beer bottles people had tossed from their cars. Each bottle was worth two cents.
We'd bring them home, wash ‘em out with the garden hose and ride up to Pte. Tremble Market to cash them in.
Ten bottles meant twenty cents. Twenty cents meant serious purchasing power.
Usually some of it went toward candy. I remember buying Tootsie Pops for a nickel.
Looking back, I suppose we were recycling before anybody told us it was environmentally responsible. We just thought we'd figured out how to get free candy.
A cherry Tootsie Pop carries a memory before anyone even takes the first bite.
The wrapper, color, shape, and familiar flavor are instantly recognizable to generations of Americans.
For a child, a piece of candy could represent independence—the ability to choose something with a few coins earned from chores, saved from an allowance, or found through one of childhood’s little opportunities.
The candy disappears. The memory of choosing it can remain.
From the Artist:
As kids, we'd ride our bikes along M-29 looking for pop and beer bottles people had tossed from their cars. Each bottle was worth two cents.
We'd bring them home, wash ‘em out with the garden hose and ride up to Pte. Tremble Market to cash them in.
Ten bottles meant twenty cents. Twenty cents meant serious purchasing power.
Usually some of it went toward candy. I remember buying Tootsie Pops for a nickel.
Looking back, I suppose we were recycling before anybody told us it was environmentally responsible. We just thought we'd figured out how to get free candy.
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