If you grew up in Michigan back in the day, you know exactly where temptation lived — right there in the middle of the grocery store, between the bananas and the green beans: it was the Brach’s Pick-a-Mix candy kiosk. I swear it had a bright ray of light hovering over it and I heard the angels sing whenever it came within my line of sight.
Delayed Gratification
As soon as we’d approach it my mom would stop us in our tracks. “No. Not right now, we can get some candy after we’re finished with my list,” she’d say. Ahhhh the delayed gratification! The reward she would bestow on us for behaving while stuck at the grocery store!! Mom wasn’t dumb, she knew we’d have to be good so we could get over to that little corner of heaven in a grocery store!!
Walking past it was the ultimate test of childhood willpower. Rows of those shiny glass bins filled with pastel caramels, butterscotch disks, and those strange jelly nougats with the little colored bits (no one’s favorite, yet somehow always there). The true test of our resolve to behave would come when other kids would walk over to the candies. <gasp> what if the candy all gets taken before Mom finished her list?? Would they bring out more??? My poor little mind would be filled with enormous worry about the perceived crowds of kids taking all the candy before Mom finished shopping.
My personal favorites were the chocolate covered malted milk balls, the large mounds of chocolate filled with orange cream and of course, those soft, buttery rich caramel candy squares with the clear wrapping.
Every shopping trip, Mom would be weighing produce while I was offering to go down the next aisle to get bread supposedly so we could finish up quicker but truthfully, so that I could kinda sorta casually walk. by. the. candy. oh. so. nonchalantly… since it was, after all, right there… and me all the while weighing my odds of getting caught.
Stealing candy
But alas, sometimes, at least in our store, there was the perky Brach’s girl, usually a teenager working her first job, wearing the cute pink apron and a cap that says “Brach’s”…she carried a candy scoop and wrapped and weighed your candy. What a cool job SHE had, I’d think to myself. She can sample candy all day and get PAID for it! That’s it. I’m getting a Brach’s candy girl job soon as I can drive, I told myself! But often she’d be talking to someone or better yet, on a break so there was nobody to scoop your candy, and you can do it yourself! One quick look around — no candy girl or any other store clerk in sight — and boop, one caramel popped right into the mouth. Shhhh! Just quality control, you know? Somebody had to make sure they were fresh.
Of course, the guilt was instant. I was a good little Catholic girl, after all, and when you’re eight, stealing candy feels like a straight shot to hell. So next catechism class, I marched straight into confession and told Father Sayers that I’d stolen from the Brach’s candy bin at Great Scott!
Saving my Soul from Sampling Sweets
He tried not to laugh — failed miserably — and gave me three Hail Marys, one Our Father, and probably a silent “bless her heart.” I remember him asking me “Were you hungry? Or just tempted?” Hmmmm…how do I answer that truthfully? Because even if I’d have been stuffed to the gills, I’d have still made room for that piece or two of candy. (And yes, I only confessed to ONE piece when in fact, there were a couple handfuls I’d swiped) I lowered my head and said “I was tempted.” Father was quiet for a minute and he said “In life, you’ll have lots of temptation, child. Try to walk away from things that tempt you to break a commandment.” That could truly have been a profound piece of advice to me, but my little 8-year-old mind thought only in terms of taking candy from a kiosk without paying, back then. 😉
The Brach’s Pick-a-Mix kiosks are long gone, today, which is kind of ironic considering how much of our shopping is now self-serve. Maybe someone out there can bring it back? I’d love to go there anytime I want now that I’m a grown up 😉 Dang it, now I’m jonesin’ for some of those Brach’s royals!
Looking back, it wasn’t just candy. It was a lesson in temptation, guilt, and the sweet taste of childhood rebellion. Today’s kids sneak Wi-Fi passwords — yet we risked our souls for a caramel cube. ###
So tell me, what was YOUR favorite candy from the Brach’s Pick-a-Mix kiosk?
