candy i want

Despite the oddly non-chocolate-related photo accompanying this article, I can get on board with the discussion of why Dairymilk bars made in the States suck, compared to those made in England. It's nice to be vindicated in my hoarding of Cadbury's. Nothing beats my Cadbury's Caramel bars...now for someone to rhapsodize about the Solero and Magnum ice cream bars I love so much but have never seen here.

With obscure chocolate in mind (and a tummy full of Dairy Queen, thank you, suburban California), Andi took me a great shop in Boulder that has all matter of nostalgic, regional, hard-to-find, obscure candy, chewing gum, and so on. And a whole wall of gummy things and jelly beans. And a showing of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" with three little movie theater seats in the very back of the store. Teaberry gum and Sugar Daddies were the little memory-jogs for me, and this neat candy called Valomilk that I saw last time I was home in Pike County. There, it was at the Farm & Home, of all places, and this latest time, I chose to pass it up for homemade Junior Mint ice cream. I nearly bought a bunch of the random candy just to try it out, though.

My cousins tease my uncle for, at some point in their childhood, answering a request for a shopping trip with "If it's not at the Farm & Fleet, you don't need it." This stuck in my memory for being far more curt and reductive than I know my uncle to be, and also because we didn't have a Farm & Fleet in Carbondale when I grew up. (Farm & Home/Fleet/X being the hardware/variety/everything sort of store where you can get what you need for gardening, livestock, construction, or whatever in most of downstate Illinois, as far as I can tell). Dad and I went to town when I visited in May to get something to make for dinner for Mom, and came home with practically a car full of stuff for the gardening, the animals, and the latest building improvement project, all from the Farm & Home...but no Valomilk. Maybe next time.