April 14, 2011 - C is for Candy

Okay, okay, so even though I’m late with this I’m kind of getting into the A-Z Bloggers Challenge. Really, though, I’m not doing it for the challenge itself because I’m so far behind anyway, but it’s fun to come up with themes based around the letters of the alphabet and I’m just going with it. For some reason, “C” has been much harder for me to get ideas from than “B,” but I think I did okay…

Who can take the sunshine,
sprinkle it with dew,
cover it with chocolate and a miracle or two…

C is for Candy Man

Now many of you my age and up might’ve known these words, famously sung by Sammy Davis Jr. waaayyy back in the day. I was really little when I first heard this innocent and innocuous tune, and as a child I remember candy as something special, a treat to look forward to that always sprinkled a little sunshine in your life. Who couldn’t identify with that?



Well, this song is not in my iTunes library and I’d probably never put it there, but there is another tune by the same name that was done more recently and its definitely more up to my speed. Christina Aguilera’s ‘Candy Man’ was a swing jazz smash off of her wonderful 2007 concept album, “Back to Basics.”

The song was a clear throwback to the Andrews Sisters’ “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” with a modern twist. Other than the somewhat raunchy lyrics, the song is so authentic to the times that it could have been performed during the WWII Era when the original was playing at dances all over the place. But of course, titillation sells records nowadays and so… Still, the song is authentically great fun! So watch, listen, and enjoy:




A nostalgic walk down memory lane with the Candy Man…

A couple of years back, I was in Ft. Lauderdale visiting a friend and he took me to one of the coolest stores I’d ever been in. It was called To the Moon Marketplace and its wares were decidedly retro. The little shop carried a lot of things I remembered as a child: wooden toys, old metal lunchboxes with Scooby Doo and Batman, Cinderella and Strawberry Shortcake, classic toys like the original Rock Em’, Sock Em’ Robots and Battleship, and best of all, vintage candy.

My eyes filled with wonder and excitement at the site of these wonderful delectables I had forgotten even existed. The white chalky candy cigarettes, NECO, Charleston Chews, Chunky, Hubba Bubba and Bubbilicious bubble gum, Pixie Stix, Pop Rocks, the wax bottles with juice inside, Ju Ju Be’s, Bazooka, Pez dispensers, and so much more! I was like a kid in a candy shop…well I kind of WAS a kid in a candy shop.

I grabbed a shopping basket and loaded it up with all I could find. I made a second basket for an old friend back in NY who I knew would be as excited as I was about the find and headed for the cash register with a big, nostalgia-induced smile on my face! I won’t tell you how much I spent that day, but it was well worth it if only for my time in the shop. When I got back home to New York I kept the candies around the house for awhile, as sort of a comforting, decorative touch to my house. Little by little I sampled the goodies from my youth, not quite enjoying them as much as I did when I was a kid. In the end, most of it was wasted, but hey, that day in that shop was a moment of sunshine sprinkled with dew for me. I loved every minute of it and it was the Candy Man that gave it to me! Oh, and my pal Eddy! Thanks buddy!







By the way, To the Moon Marketplace has a website. Check it out right here.



Tweet