{"id":3484,"date":"2012-04-20T19:16:14","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T23:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=3484"},"modified":"2012-04-20T19:16:14","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T23:16:14","slug":"ode-to-woolworths-the-magical-isle-of-my-candy-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=3484","title":{"rendered":"Ode to Woolworth’s – The magical isle of my candy youth."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I grew up in Nebraska in the 1970’s, and in the town where I grew up, we had a Woolworth’s store.\u00a0\u00a0 Without a doubt it had the best selection of candy and gum in town and because of that, I have powerfully good memories about the place.\u00a0 The Woolworth’s store of my youth is the very one pictured in the postcard title image today.<\/p>\n

Like all Woolworth’s, it’s long-gone, but the memories remain, so today I’m dedicating my post to this early retail giant that has passed on, and my memories of it.<\/p>\n

[The Tooley’s store also seen on that postcard is still there.\u00a0 Like Woolworth’s they had a soda fountain, and it’s still there, though modernized.\u00a0 I sat down for a great lunch at Tooley’s over the Christmas holiday.]<\/p>\n

Regular readers of CollectingCandy.com will recognize my fondness for the store – I mention it quite often.\u00a0 On the old main street of my hometown, the candy isle was glorious, offering all of the novelty candy and gum available.\u00a0 So many of the items I write about and research, I was first exposed to at this Woolworth’s.\u00a0\u00a0 They also had a great luncheonette.<\/p>\n

One of my last visits to a Woolworth’s location was in New York City during the late 1990’s, and if I recall, it was with a group of my fellow Marvel Comics editors at the time – attending October Burger-fest at the luncheonette there.\u00a0\u00a0 I didn’t realize it at the time, but it would my last visit to a Woolworth’s.\u00a0 I’m glad it was a memorable one.<\/p>\n

I have searched high-and-low for photos of a 1970’s Woolworth’s candy isle, to capture my experiences there.\u00a0 I could not find any, but I have a few photos of store shelves from the era that convey a bit of that feeling.<\/p>\n

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1974 retail candy shelves B&W<\/p><\/div>\n

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1974 retail candy shelves<\/p><\/div>\n

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Candy shelves image from 1974 Topps Annual Report<\/p><\/div>\n

Listing the candy that I first found at my Woolworth’s is not an easy task, but off the top of my head I recall buying Bottle Caps there, Fleer’s Mr. Bones and Fireplug candy, Donruss Bitty Bombs, Razzles, and so much more.<\/p>\n

Because I’m a collector-nerd, and because collectors dream big, I’ll occasionally find myself in a dream, back at that childhood Woolworth’s location.\u00a0 It is somehow intact, and I am there looking over the candy shelves again.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s quite silly, but I do have silly dreams some nights.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it’s best that Woolworth’s all went away when they did.\u00a0 If they’d found a way to survive I imagine that today they’d be nothing more than mirror images of Walgreens and similar stores.\u00a0\u00a0 For me, they are frozen in time, just the way I remember them.<\/p>\n

I have one last image to share, which was the impetus of today’s article.\u00a0 It’s a Woolworth’s store-brand candy bag.\u00a0\u00a0 I imagine these would have been used for locations that sold penny candies out of bins – something I don’t recall my Woolworth’s doing, but I may have been too busy looking at the Garbage Can-dy to notice.<\/p>\n

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Woolworth's - cellophane candy bag - old stock - 1970's<\/p><\/div>\n

That’s everything for today.\u00a0\u00a0 Stop in this weekend for more candy fun, and on Monday I am working on a large feature, and super-cool timeline.\u00a0 You won’t want to miss it!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up in Nebraska in the 1970’s, and in the town where I grew up, we had a Woolworth’s store.\u00a0\u00a0 Without a doubt it had the best selection of candy and gum in town and because of that, I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,24],"tags":[1208,1206,51,27,10,16,78,65,21,186,25,237,15,12,211],"class_list":["post-3484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1960s","category-1970s","tag-1960s","tag-1970s","tag-60s","tag-70s","tag-candy","tag-confection","tag-confectionery","tag-nostalgia","tag-packaging","tag-retail","tag-retro","tag-store","tag-sweets","tag-vintage","tag-woolworths"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2aFGk-Uc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3484"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3500,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3484\/revisions\/3500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}