Sugar Town

 Penny Candy Stores and a Soda Shop

When I was younger there was a neighborhood Penny Candy Store up a couple blocks and on the corner called Steve's Store.  My brothers spent most of their paper route earnings there and at the comic book store downtown.  I didn't find wax lips, pixie sticks or candy cigarettes much to my liking.  I saved my babysitting money for college instead but once in awhile I'd splurge and buy one of those candy necklaces and get one for my younger sisters as well.  We actually wore those around our necks and ate off of them, played games outside like Statue or Spud or 7UP, jump rope or jacks and get all hot and sweaty but still ate off of them for several days.   Strangely we were never sick. 

I don't think we ever had soda pop growing up.  Maybe we'd get an Orange Crush once in awhile. We usually drank water that came out of the faucet in plastic glasses or old jelly glasses.  Sometimes we drank Kool-Aid with only 3/4 cup of sugar; not the whole cup it called for. 

 Chocolate Shops

You can almost see the chocolate in the air! 

 The best place to buy hand made chocolates around here is Lagomarcino's. My husband usually buys me a box of chocolates from there for Valentine's Day and Christmas gifts.  We never had much money for gifts when the kids were younger so my husband and I never bought each other anything for holidays, anniversaries or birthdays.  When we finally got ahead financially I started getting a box of chocolates from Lagomarcino's for a Christmas gift.  All these years later that's still the only Christmas gift I get from my husband and I'm not complaining.  The boxes come wrapped (by Lagomarcino's) with a big organza or tulle bow. I've saved all those bows in a little box thinking I'll find a use for them someday - maybe a wreath?  He usually buys two boxes for Valentine's Day but only gives me one and hides the other.  As I eat chocolates out of my gift box he sneaks more into it out of the hidden box.  So it seems like the box fills back up like magic - kind of like scraps.   I didn't catch on the first year he did that but now know what's going on but never let on to him I know. But I'm pretty sure he knows I know. 

Bakeries and some Nut Houses for the more Salty Characters. 

My husband's maternal grandfather, William Petersen (1895-1935),  basically raised himself. His parents were alcoholics.  At a young age (13) he was an apprentice in a bakery (according to census records), enlisted in the Army in 1917 (discharged 1919) where he was evidently a baker  and later he ended up as the owner of the same bakery where he served as an apprentice.  He shipped bread to all the surrounding areas via rail until Wonder Bread came to town and took over most of that business. I actually have one of the old wooden shipping containers from those days that I use for a side table. I also have some bread pans from the bakery that I sometimes use when I make bread.  They are well seasoned.  William turned the bakery into a tavern and died at a young age of cirrhosis of the liver. 

I got some troubles, but they won't last
I'm gonna lay right down here in the grass
And pretty soon all my troubles will pass
'Cause I'm in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo
Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town. 

Like so many songs, especially blues, I'm pretty sure the sugar that Nancy Sinatra sang about was a double- entendre.  I have to say that the darned lyrics played over and over in my head while I was making these.  Thankfully it's time to leave Sugar Town. 

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag