Candy Land

When I was growing up my family would travel every summer to visit my father’s uncle in Paragould, Arkansas from Louisville, Kentucky. Now I realize that we were either taking my grandmother to visit her brother or picking her up. But back then I knew that we were going to spend a week at the farm that my uncle had.

We always drove the backroads down to Paragould. I guess that was before the interstate system went in but I loved driving. It would take us all day to get there and I’m sure we were a lot of work for my mom and dad. I am sure there were a lot of “are we there yet?” And “I have to go to the bathroom”. I’m sure we stopped to eat on the way but we would stop at a restaurant as there weren’t too many fast food restaurants back then. I mean, I think this was before McDonald’s even.

I do remember going through Paducah, Kentucky. We would go through Illinois and Missouri and finally Arkansas. By the time we got there we were definitely ready to get out of the car.

Going to the farm was always an adventure and I cherish a lot of those memories. As an adult I have been over that way a couple of times to see if I recognize anything and I’m sorry to say that I don’t but I do have the memories.

I remember the food. It was so very good. Aunt Ava and Grandma would cook 3 meals a day. There was always fried chicken or fried pork chops. There was always a pie or a cobbler. The biscuits were wonderful. I remember the time that Uncle Cecil pulled a $100 dollar bill out of his wallet. That was the first time I had seen one and I knew that they had to be so rich. I remember the twin bed on the screened in front porch. I have always wanted a sleeping porch. I remember the pallets on the floor that we would sleep on. No telling how many old quilts were piled up so that the floor wasn’t so hard. I remember the farm animals that Uncle Cecil would buy for us while we were there. A couple of years it was a pony. At least one year it was goats. I don’t know how much land Uncle Cecil had and I don’t know what kind of farming that he did but we knew that we were on a farm because of the roosters crowing and all of the cats wondering around and the smells of hay and manure.

The trip was always a delight. On our way home we would always stop around Kentucky Lake at a candy shop, called Candy Land. It was a little hole in the wall, and was definitely a tourist attraction for everyone vacationing at the lake, but we always stopped. The main reason that we did was because they had “diatetic” candy. My father and grandmother were diabetics so they couldn’t have any candy whatsoever. But at this store there was candy just for diabetics. And us kids knew that if we were going into a candy store we were going to get something.

I don’t remember what Dad and Grandma got. I do remember that it didn’t taste good. But I do remember what Mom got. She got a pecan log. Those things were huge. Sometimes she would get divinity too. Or sometimes peanut brittle. I truly don’t remember what I would get except I’m sure it was one of those really big suckers that looked good but tasted nasty. I do think that Mom got some taffy too because I remember being allowed a piece or two of taffy. I have no idea how much money we spent but I do remember it was a big deal and we had to stop every time we went by.

Alright, we are going to fast forward 25+ years, I think. I had moved down to western Kentucky. I never gave Candy Land another thought. One day I was out with Jimmy driving around and I saw it. I would recognize that shop anywhere. I had to stop.

We went in. I saw the “sugar free” section. I saw the fudge (I don’t remember us getting any fudge). I saw those nasty huge suckers and wonder why in the world my parents would let me have one of those. I saw the taffy and I saw the pecan logs. I know I left there with a pecan log (even though I never really liked them but I still remember Mom slicing a piece off here and there. She could make something like that last for weeks.). I also left there with some taffy and I’m sure a piece of fudge or two.

Through the years I would stop in on occasion. I didn’t buy them out every time but I always left with a pecan log. Then it seemed like they weren’t making the candy anymore. They still had plenty of candy but most of it seemed prepackaged. I never really got excited about going after that.

But every time I would drive by I would remember us pulling up in the blue and white Buick and piling out of the car to run in to see what kind of treats we could talk Mom and Dad and sometimes Grandma out of. I know when we came in that the little old lady would somehow cringe because you never knew what kind of mess we would leave. I’d drive by and just sigh remembering our trips and then try to figure out how the drive from Louisville to Paragould would take us right by that store, every year.

I went by there today. It was closed. It was closed for good. When I knew I was going to go by I had even thought that I would stop in and get a piece of fudge or two for old time’s sake. And then when I saw it all I could think about was that Candy Land was gone. I pulled into the median and took a picture of the closed storefront. My memories are probably 55 years old. I had to ask myself how in the world had they stayed in business for so long. I wondered if the same people owned the store for all of those years. And then I wondered how they had lasted so much longer than my family.

I sure would have liked to have gone in there and bought one of those nasty huge suckers just one more time.