When I was in the Halloween candy section at the grocery store last night, I spotted bags of mini rolls of Necco candy wafers. I don’t see those too often. In fact, they’re hard to find. You have to go out of your way to find them if you’re looking for them. I had to buy a couple of bags but I’m thinking I should go back and get some more before they’re gone.
Why are they so special? Because they’re classic and have been around since 1847? Well, maybe but I’ve not been around since 1847 so that’s not it. For me, I think it’s because they remind me of my childhood. They were a special treat. The large roll was a nickel. There was a Safeway store around the corner from us and the world was not as crazy then as it is now so my mom allowed us to go to Safeway without her. I remember being about five and walking there with my sister who was a year older. We just had to walk to the end of our block, turn the corner and walk to the end of the block. The store was across the street and we weren’t allowed to cross the street on our own but there was a fire station on that corner and there was always, always a fireman or two sitting outside in their lawn chairs waiting for a call and when we appeared at the corner, they would come over and make sure we crossed safely. We weren’t allowed to go often or for just anything. We were only allowed to go when my mother needed something and there was no one else to go. She had to stay home with my two younger sisters so if my older brothers weren’t around, my sister and I were sent. Occasionally, we earned a nickel for doing something or for being extra good. With that nickel, I bought Necco wafers. I loved the taste and I loved that they were round and to me, they reminded me of nickels. Sometimes, I would use them as currency, trading my “nickels” for something else.
I also remember saving the metal end pieces from the refrigerator biscuits. I would wash them and save them and then my sisters and I would use them as play money. I know they were big but they were round and metal and shiny and we often had a lot of them. We had a big family so when my mom made the refrigerator biscuits, she used a lot of those packages to have enough for us all. So they were readily available, and free! We had to be creative to get toys!
And then there was the Sunday paper with the color comics. Those were used as pictures. We cut them out and put them in our play purses and pretended that they were family pictures. My sister used the black and white ones from the daily paper too but I only liked the color comics so I didn’t use the daily comic pages. Our little purses cast offs from my mom or baskets and they were filled with Necco candy wafer money, refrigerator biscuit money, and color comic page photos of our “friends and family”. It was great fun for us and it was all free and had us using our imagination…the best kind of fun!
Wasted Days And Wasted Nights 