How Sweet It Is….. Sometimes

One of my happiest childhood memories was my grandmother taking me to the candy counters at big department stores in Memphis, Tennessee—the city where I grew up.

At that time, department stores had very nice candy counters. Their gleaming displays of candy were arranged in a very nice way. My grandmother would periodically take me to these candy counters, and the candy I always gravitated to was fruit slices. These were half circles of jelly-like candy. At that time, they came in four flavors: raspberry, lemon, orange, and lime. My favorite two were the raspberry and lime. They were designed to look like real fruit slices, though, of course, real raspberries don't come in that shape.

I don't know how many years my grandmother took me to these candy counters, but it must have been a good ten years—let’s say from age four to 12. I'm not really sure, but it remains a special memory.

Fast forward to today, decades later. When my birthday was coming around, I began obsessing over those fruit slice candies. I went to every candy store near my house, entering with great anticipation. But none had them. The glazed-eyed clerks had no idea what I was talking about.

Then I remembered a candy counter that sold them at the Farmer's Market in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. Even though it was miles away from where I'm living now, I decided to fight the traffic. After all, it had been years since I had any of these fruit slice candies.

But driving, there were a million traffic jams along the way, and I kept telling myself to turn around and go back home. Still, I persevered and pressed through until, finally, I made it to the Farmer's Market.

But when I got to the candy counter and saw the outrageous price—something like $19 a pound—I thought about turning around again. Then, I thought, "It’s your birthday. You may as well get some."

So I got an assortment, including one my favorites, the lime. But then when I bit into one, it wasn't lime at all. It was green apple. I was so disappointed. It totally spoiled my food memories.

On top of that, the candies were way too sweet. These days, I generally don't eat a lot of sugar. So it was kind of a sugar shock.

I guess the bottom-line is, our memories of food can be sweet, and sometimes we should just live with those memories.

https://soundcloud.com/alfordla/fruit-slices