When I was a kid, my dad always worked more than one job. He worked in the steel mill full time, and then he worked part time as a meat cutter in a little shop that I only remember as "Wilma's". I think the actual name was Kirkwood Market or something, but to me, and my siblings, it was always Wilma's, after the woman who owned it. I remember Wilma so well, and also Annie, the other lady that worked there. The store was an old fashioned grocery, with wood and glass cases, wood shelves, and a big walk in cooler.
Wilma and Annie were so awesome to us, and we kids always looked forward to our dad coming home with a sack full of penny candy. He would often come home with a large bag of all kinds of candy, and three smaller sacks to divide it into for we three kids. Swedish fish, sixlets, wax bottles and lips, tootsies, bottlecaps, lemon heads, pixie stix, boston baked beans, candy cigarettes, jolly ranchers, smartees, sweet tarts, fortune gum, root beer barrels, I cannot even remember all the different kinds of candy there were. All I remember was it was heaven in a brown paper bag. We loved sitting and sorting it into our little sacks, then bartering with each other for our favorites.
When I entered middle school, we had an open lunch period, where we could leave school grounds, and Wilma's was less than 3 blocks away. I can remember walking down there on days Dad was working to get a ham sandwich, a frosty coke in a glass bottle, and of course, penny candy. Sadly, our open lunch privileges were later revoked until late high school, so I only had one year of going to Wilma's. It closed some time after that.
I asked Hubby if there was anywhere to get penny candy around here, and he was not sure. Sounds like I need to do some exploring. In the mean time, do you remember penny candy? What was your favorite?
