June 29th, 2018

Tim and I ate at Cracker Barrel not long ago.  The food is not fancy, but it's consistent, the price is reasonable and at least down here in Florida, you are never very far from one.  We hadn't eaten at a Cracker Barrel is some time so I had fun playing that peg game at the table for awhile, and losing every single time (Every time!)  and looking around at all the memorabilia decorating the walls while we waited for our food.  I always enjoy prowling around the store awhile on the way out, just to see what there is to see. But one of my favourite things about eating at a Cracker Barrel Restaurants, is the candy section.  It's always a little visit to the past.

I've been feeling a little candy nostalgic lately anyway for which I thoroughly blame youngest child, Hurley.  You see, he does a daily Instagram video called SnackMurder whereupon he "murders" a different snack food every day, writes a  review and videos himself tasting it and discussing the pro and/or cons of each. It's very entertaining.  My favourite posts are on Fridays because that day is Flashback Friday where he tries a an oldie food.  Y'know,  old stuff, like from my era.  It's awesome.

These are candy's I know, many of which I've had, but not thought of in eons.  Still the memory is there.  When he merely opened the package of Necco wafers, I could smell that Necco dust. The sound of the waxed paper wrapper crinkling came to mind and of course I could taste that chalky, nasty old familiar Necco flavor.  I was not a fan. BUT I remember it.

In the same way, a walk through the candy aisles of a Cracker Barrel really sparks up the old memory banks.  How many of you remember: Gnawing candy dots off the shiny paper which grew stickier and stickier as you ate row after row; having the colour come off onto your neck from a damp candy necklace;   the slap/crack sound from slamming a Turkish Taffy on the table top to break it up;  the ache in your jaw from the aptly named jaw breaker;  biting the wax top off of those little bottle of liquids and sucking out that teensy bit of 'candy juice' and then chewing up the wax afterwards (that sounds so gross now) or reading the comic that came in the Bazooka Bubble gum wrapper.  

My favourite Cracker Barrel candy  is  the malted milk balls.  Because my husband loves me, when we leave Cracker Barrel, he always picks up a little bag of those for me because he is a very nice man.  I bite each one in half, suck out the malted milk center and then eat the chocolate.  My tongue is always sore by the time the bag is empty but it's totally worth while.  My joy is palpable while eating malted milk balls.

Tim on the other hand prefers chewier things, Mary Janes, Bit-o-honey, Mike'n'Ike's,  gummy anythings.  I am fine with the taste of those things, I just don't care for the stick-in-the-teeth element of those sorts of things.  With the exception of Milk Duds.  For some reason I suspend the dislike of chewy things for the rapture of Milk Duds which I ONLY ever eat in a movie theatre.

I never cared for the candy sticks really.  I'm not sure why.  Tim loves the licorice stuff which I absolutely despise, which I suppose make it a safe bet for him to buy because he knows for certain that I won't be sneaking any of that particular candy stash.

I honestly  never had those giant orange peanut looking things.  They just don't look like something anyone should eat.  The Boston Baked beans, well I tried them once, so no thank you, that was sufficient.  Root Beer Barrels, in small doses on very rare occasions when I'm really in the mood for one is okay although I would probably never buy any on purpose.  Sometimes they just sort of show up in a mixed bag of hard candies though.  Burnt French Peanuts don't even sound good. Why would I want to eat something that is burnt?  I never had a Valomilk though youngest son reviewed one on his SnackMurder Flashback Friday's and he quite liked it.  He certainly made it sound as if I missed out on something really good there.

My sister loved sweet-tarts though I was not so much of a fan.  Her favourite back when we were kids (and still her favourite today) is Nonpareils.  They are harder to find nowadays although sometimes they pop up in movie theatre snack counters disguised as "Snowcaps."  They aren't quite as sweet as a lot of candies. The chocolate is deeper, maybe it's dark chocolate, which would almost make it healthy right?

There are an astonishing number of candies at Cracker Barrel that I've never tried.  They have things I never heard of before which is always fun to contemplate.  Maybe in the future instead of my take-away bag being Malted Milk Balls, instead I will be brave and try something new!  But probably not.  Most likely I will leave the adventurous snacking to Hurley and his SnackMurder Instagram site where his tagline is #Try Everything!  I admire the attitude (though I don't share it)  and I really watching his videos. 

​Oh what the heck, next time, I promise, I will try something new.  What's life with a little risk?