Flash Light, Red Light

Corner stores have changed a lot since I was little. I remember when I was little, around 7 or so my sister and I used to go to the corner store together in our old neighborhood. We had to go together and stay together and be back within a few minutes or my mom or dad would come looking for us. Actually, they watched us secretly from the porch and then when they thought we were looking they walked to the corner to watch us. They did that for a few times until they were confident that we could handle it by ourselves. The corner store was actually not far from the corner of our house at the time. My sister and I would walk holding hands to go there to get cookies. We loved to get peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies for her. They were 3 for 10 cents. We used to save our dimes and when we went we got at least 6. They had most of the stuff that they do have now in corner stores with the exception of beer. In that small store we felt like kids in a candy store, guess because they did have candy lots of candy. We would get Mr. Good bar candy bars, Snickers, Hershey's chocolate bars for 10 cents each. Cans of soda were 12 cents back then and our favorite pixie sticks were a penny a piece. Sometimes there was milk and breads that you could buy also but this little store that was about it. It was run by a older lady and her husband and they were so nice. Always giving us something for free.

My son and I went to our corner store the other day to get some bread and a couple of bananas. Well, of course they have a lot of other things too. You can almost get anything in a bigger store there also with an exception of a couple of things. So, Josh noticed that they had new candy and after you eat the candy you have a light left. I call it flashlight candy. So of course they weren't cheap as nothing is at that store, the price you pay for the convenience of walking a short distance from your house to pick up some bananas for breakfast. I asked how much for the flashlight candy and the guy said oh it is 50 cents. I was surprised. I thought he was going to say at least 99 cents like the big candy bars are. We got 2. One for me and one for him. I love candy too. We happily ate the cherry candy that reminded me of jolly ranchers candy. You really couldn't see the red light that was supposed to appear when you pressed the button on the side in the daytime so we waited until bedtime to see that images. It was pretty cool. Josh and I shinned the lights on the ceiling and I taught him that old song that used to be one of my favorites back in the day, "Flashlight". I forgot which group sang it and I could only remember some of the words but that was enough for us to have fun with the flashlight candy. Afterwards, we made shadow puppets. Just the simple joys of childhood and making memories.   

Who knows what we will find on our next trip to the corner store.