Frustrating Candy (Old Post)

Originally posted in 2012 on one of my old blogs.

These candy buttons used to drive me crazy when I was a kid. I never could eat them without getting paper in my mouth AND in my teeth.

So Special, So Close (Old Post, Slightly Edited)

When I was a kid, I didn’t have to go very far…. I didn’t have to go far at all….. to go somewhere special. The candy store was right there on the corner of my block.

It’s funny how many non-candy items were sold there, and, most likely, at most corner candy stores. Come to think of it, didn’t their signs include the word SUNDRIES?

How many ice-cream sodas did I drink at that candy store?  How many sundaes did I consume? The best sundaes EVER! Chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup, mixed fruit topping, nuts, whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry.  Eaten slowly to make it last, yet not too slowly, so the ice cream wouldn’t melt.Oh, for one of those sundaes NOW!

Chocolate egg creams.

Hot chocolate in thick cups.
Cookies.  Little cakes.  Potato chips.  Pretzels. Popcorn. Salted pumpkin seeds. Sunflower seeds. Ice cream bars and sandwiches, and Dixie cups that came with little wooden spoons.
And then there were all the non-food and beverage items.
Comics.Newspapers. Magazines.Paperback books. I remember buying my first two collections of Shakespeare at that store, “Four Great Comedies” and “Four Tragedies.” These books, published by Washington Square Press, were a great bargain at a quarter each! But I hated the way the covers felt.  Looking back, I think they may have just been a bit dusty! Of course, I bought some other books there as well!
And then there were all the toys. Balls. Airplanes (very fragile; or should I say FLIMSY!) Toy instruments. (I once bought a plastic flute; I think it was blue.)Hula hoops (when they were popular.) Yo-yos. Plastic dolls.
And many other things that I can’t think of at the moment. An amazing variety for a rather small store.
When I was a kid, I didn’t need to travel far to find magic and wonder.  Magic and wonder were right there on the corner of my block.

Book Review, And A Personal Revelation

https://thedailyspur.wordpress.com/2026/01/25/write/

There are so many things I could have written for today's prompt, and it took me quite some time to narrow it down to just one, but I finally decided to share a review of Beverly Cleary's "Muggie Maggie" which I posted on Amazon way back
in 2002. It includes some information about me, which makes it perfect for this blog.

And now, after that intro, the review itself!

This book, while well-written, does not quite come up to the quality of many of Beverly Cleary's other works, for example, the Henry Huggins books, the Ramona series, Ellen Tebbits, Otis Spofford, and Emily's Runaway Imagination.
The main character, Maggie, is a third-grade girl who rebels against learning to write cursive, partly because she doesn't like the way it looks.
Of course, her refusal causes great concern among the adults in Maggie's life. Maggie even has to see the principal and the school psychologist.
Things seem to be at an impasse, and then Maggie's teacher, Mrs. Leeper, comes up with a clever way of motivating Maggie to learn cursive...
she makes her the note monitor, and leaves the notes unsealed, knowing that Maggie will peek at them. These notes were, for the most part, amusing. One of them, however, brought back some very painful childhood memories.
"Maggie is now reading cursive. I saw her reading what I had written on the chalkboard. If she can read it, she can write it."
Now, while this was true in Maggie's case, and would be true for many others, there are also those who can read it, but, for some reason or other, cannot write cursive, and sometimes have difficulty with printing as well.
I'm one of these people. I was reading several years above my grade level, but my handwriting was terrible, due, in my case, to a perceptual-motor disablity which wasn't diagnosed until just before I entered the sixth grade. I was often scolded and shamed in front of my classmates:
"There is no excuse for someone who reads as well as you do to have such poor handwriting. You're just not trying. Shame on you!"
Kudos to Mrs. Leeper for NOT shaming Maggie in front of her classmates. And kudos to Beverly Cleary for having some adults in the book with less than perfect penmanship. Finally, kudos to Beverly Cleary for creating a new character for this book. I doubt that it would have worked as part of the Ramona series.
I've given this book three stars, not because of my childhood memories, but because, as I said at the beginning of this review, while well-written, it does not quite come up to the quality of many of Beverly Cleary's other works.

Shameless Plug For A Future Post:
The prompt given today will also be included in the next Saturday Night Song List.

I Loved Going To The Dentist

Originally posted in 2011 on one of my old blogs.

Yep! When I was a kid, my friends and I loved going to the dentist. His office was right on my block, so I went at least once a week, sometimes by myself, sometimes with one or more of my friends. Either way, I always had a great time there.
You see, Dr. Kopel (that was his name, but after all these years I'm not sure I'm spelling it right) had a storeroom full, and I mean FULL, of comic books, including many that the corner candy store didn't carry, and he didn't care how much
time his young friends spent reading them.
So I really enjoyed going to the dentist... except when I had to go to the dentist!