The Sweetest Part of Being a Kid
All that sweet mouth-watery goodness!
Snacks are a huge part of growing up. Every kid would have a lunchbox filled with the treats of the day. Boys would carry Superman or Spiderman lunchboxes with tons of chocolatey snacks inside. Girls would carry bright pink or yellow lunchboxes with their own specific sweets. Do you remember those days? Recess or snacktime would be exciting as we would have no idea what mommy or daddy prepared for us. The bell would ring and classes would end and we would all run downstairs and outside to get a free table inside the canteen or foodcourt. Friends would gather and show up with their own snack trays or lunchboxes. If you were lucky, you would have money to buy at the canteen, and the canteen would be full of recess goodies. Lasagna, spaghetti, sandwiches, chocolates, candies, and every snack and sweet little thing that we could want!
Recess and snack time was surely a delight. Our lunchbox was divided into two parts. One for recess or ‘merienda’, and one for lunch! Lunch was almost always easy for kids. Rice with chicken, rice with hotdogs, rice with porkchop. Rice with anything! Well, except ampalaya, no one in their right mind would want ampalaya. Even now, we all do not like ampalaya.
Different Snacks for Different Folks
But for snacks, snacks made life exciting! There are tons and dozens of different snacks that appealed to our tastes!
Chocolates came in many forms and sizes. As a bar, on a stick, rolled into a roll, cubed, diced, and even sipped out of a straw! You can’t go wrong with chocolate.
Candy, they also came in all kinds of shapes! The traditional wrapped candy is a simple favorite, big, round, hard ones were also very famous, candies on a stick were and still are called lollipops. There is a candy for everybody!
One step further would be bubble gum! We loved bubble gum! Pink, chewy, bubble gum was the classic. And it came in wrapped bars, rolled tape canisters, in jars, in pellets, in anything! Bubble gum is still bubble gum no matter in what shape or form! And of course everyone would try to make bubbles out of bubble gum. Making bubble gum bubbles instantly tagged you as being cool, and if you can’t make it, well, you’re un-cool. And no one liked being un-cool. So we would practice in school, in the school bus, at home, in bed, anywhere! Just to make bubble gum bubbles.
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Oh the snacks and candies that we love.
But like the time of the 90s, many of these snacks and candies are all but gone now. Take a trip with me down memory lane as we jot down my top 7 list of snacks and candies that we already miss!
The Snacks We Love to Love
BAZOOKA BUBBLE GUM
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Bazooka! If there was one bubble gum that I would call as the very first bubble gum that I have tasted, it is Bazooka! Bazooka Joe’s bubble gum was one of the constants of growing up as a child.
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Your local store would have them in clear, plastic cans. Count your coins, hand them over to the nice, little lady, and there you have it, Bazooka bubble gum! Opening the pack would prove quite difficult as sometimes the gum sticks to the wrapping. Then you’ll see a bonus inside! The cute, little comic strip! Of course you would sniff the strip a bit and smell that sweet gummy aroma, then you would pop the gum in your mouth, feeling the little ridges along the surface. Then chew away! Chewing takes time, so why not read one of the jokes on the comic strip while you’re at it!
Don’t forget to throw away your wrapper after. I recommend keeping it for a bit so you could roll your used-up gum in it when you are done. Unless of course, you have already stuck it up a random desk or table.
PRO TIP: 2 pieces of Bazooka bubble gum is the best for making ideal bubbles. Chew well until they are not sweet anymore. Form a layer in front of your mouth, not too thin, and blow your bubble!
BUBBLE TAPE
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Since we are on the topic of bubble gum, we might as well talk about Bubble Tape! Who did not love Bubble Tape! The original came in a very bright pink container with a special flap system which enables you to pull out the long, flat bubble gum like a piece of tape! It fits snuggly in your pocket and instantly makes you the cool person in the group when you flip it out! Snag a short piece or let the line run longer for a more gummy experience! You can open the container to check how much taoe you have left so you will know if you can still share or keep it to yourself! Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape is one of the best memories we have when it comes to bubble gum, and I am certainly sad to see it go!
PRO-TIP: I am sure you did it before, if you want a huge chunk of gum and you only have Bubble Tape, open the container, get the whole chunk in your hand, and take a bite of the entire thing! Yummy right? Warning! Doing this makes the gum unable to be shared again of course!
WHITE RABBIT
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Recognize this white candy of sweety goodness? Yep! It’s White Rabbit! Since then and until now, it is a mystery why this candy is called ‘White Rabbit’. Questions have been asked and inquiries have been made. There is still no clear answer but we no longer care! White Rabbit is one classic favorite! This hard and juicy candy can roll around in your mouth for minutes upon minutes on end! Sip and suck on this candy until it is no more and then you can just pop another one in your mouth!
PRO-TIP: White Rabbit has this thin film coating around the actual candy. If you don’t look closely, you might just taste paper in your mouth! But don’t worry, it all happened to us before, just go with it!
SUNNY JUICE DRINK
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There you have it! Sunny! This juice drink is really old school. Contained in thick glass bottles (that will later be used for keeping water), this concentrated juice syrup was the daily ‘merienda’ drink staple of kids back in the day! 2 spoons of this stuff plus water in a glass makes you one sweet drink! Add ice and stir well so that it will be perfect! Sunny came in different flavors. Orange and grape were the more famous ones. Be careful when you twist the cap as it can get real tight, please try not to pour straight from a bottle, or otherwise you would end up with a terribly sweet drink that you would need the entire day to finish!
PRO-TIP: Sunny juice is also the all-time best kept secret for making iced candy. Pour the juice and water in a container, get a nozzle and pour into small plastic iced candy strips! Wait overnight and viola! Instant iced candy!
