Those of you not from Brooklyn may be unfamiliar with the term Bodega.
Go ahead. Read the definition…..I’ll wait. **Hums jeop.ardy theme**
Okay are we good now?
Here we go:
Now and Late.rs and/or Jol.ly Ran.cher sticks.
Ahhh, Now and Lat.ers. They came in all kinds of flavors. I was partial to the Green Apple. And Jolly Rancher sticks? In Watermelon or Cherry? Pure sugar people…pure sugar. The reason my dentist loves me to this very day!
Quarter Water
You may call these a variety of names….but in Brooklyn….we call these Quarter Waters. 25 cents of pure sugar and food coloring. Delicious!
Big Blo’s and/or Bazooka
This was our gum of choice in the hood. Either Big Blo’s (which were really spelled Big Bol but hey, that’s not what we CALLED them) or Bazooka’s. The flavor lasted all of ten good seconds and then the gum made your jaw hurt like hell.
Wise Chips (Honorable Mention to Bon Tons)
In New York, we had two kinds of chips growing up. Wise Chips in the original blue bag or Bon Ton’s in the white bag with the red and blue stripe. If you were a gourmet like I was….(it started early folks, discriminating palate)…you ate these!
I will also allow a special shout out to the other onion snack…..Funyuns.
Pineapple Soda
Ahhh….growing up, no bag of chips was complete without either a quarter water or the best….a pineapple soda. And my store sold them for fifty cents. Honorable mention to it’s cousin the Fruit Punch soda.
An Icy
I was an icy fiend. I loved the ones that came in the skinny plastic tubes. Then there were the Italian ice cups that you had to eat with your little wooden spoon. Remember you would wait until you got to the bottom and then flip the inside over to eat the frozen crusty part on the bottom?
Then there was the Holy Grail of icy’s.
The rainbow flavored Italian Ice you got from the pizza shop or from the cart. No, they didn’t sell this in the bodega. This was like a good filet. You had to seek it out.
The Hostess Apple Pie
Ahhh….as a kid? Better than mom’s. Go ahead….read the ingredients and weep. Thank goodness I played all day long and burned it all off as a kid. Whew!
Lemonheads/Alexander the Grape/Boston Baked Beans
These boxes of goodness had a flavor for everyone. Yum Yum. I was partial to those Boston Baked Beans. Who knows what they really were…..but the name always sounded so healthy (and patriotic)!
Pixie Stix and Lik Em Stix (Real name Fun Dip)
Nothing says cavity like flavored powdered sugar. Pixie stix were a shot of sugar in a straw. Lik em Stix were fancier.
They came with a sugar wand that you had to 1) Lick to get it wet and then 2) Dip it in the flavored sugar.
All my real people may remember that if you ran out of the powdered candy….some Kool Aid was the go to substitute.
The Push Up
Orange Sherbety goodness in an ingenious tube. *wipes tears* This may have been my favorite because it was so good on a hot day. So portable.
Remember how crafty you would get if the stick broke off the bottom? You would use all kinds of stuff to push the ice cream up. Pencils, sticks, etc. LOL
I remember that when we were done eating them, we would take the little round plastic cap out and turn it into skelly tops……but that’s another post for another day.
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May 6, 2008 at 9:47 pm
BK
Yooooooooooooooooooooo you stay taking me back ma!!! WOW..
and if I had money to burn I would buy a good-o kola or kola champagne!!! to go with my onion rings!!! hahahaaa
Go to the store and spend $2 come out with enough candy for DAYS but you are finished by the end of the day!!! hahahaaa
that italian ice with a slice with extra cheese or a beef pattie & cheese.. Yummy!!! I wanna go back to BK.. LOL
May 6, 2008 at 10:06 pm
BK
oh and the milk tops were prime skelly tops LOL used to block up the middle of the street holding up traffic during a game!! hahahaaa
May 6, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Amadeo
Until I was in my mid-teens I thought Now and Laters was one word…Niahlaters.
In Bmore Quarter Water = Barrell Juice.
May 6, 2008 at 10:22 pm
erica b.
We had a lot of that too. Our onion ring brand was “Funyuns”. Making me want a bag.
May 6, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Dee
Woooow, you are taking it back. My and my husband are loving these posts (he is from Queens). My brother lost a filling on a now-a-later (you know that’s how you used to say it, lol). We got grape ones on my mama’s white couch, too, phew. Devil dogs were my corner store snack food of choice.
May 6, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Nineteen69
BK…Milk tops were good but those push up tops were super smooth.
Amadeo….in Philly they’re called Hugs.
Erica….Funyuns were good too! Boy we were some bad breath having kids. LOL
Dee….Devil Dogs? Wow. You took it way back!!!!!
May 7, 2008 at 1:59 am
Dee
Also…I can’t be the only one who almost or did cut their tongue or lip sucking that Jolly Rancher till it was paper thin. Cherry flavor, btw. By some miracle, I had no cavities as a child.
May 7, 2008 at 2:41 am
Candice
This is straight nostalgia! I remember when the “black raspberry” (I think?) flavor of the now and laters came out, and every claimed they caused cancer! LOL. Where in the world did that rumor come from?
And I used to get the cinnamon jolly rancher sticks and dunk them in milk. I don’t know why, but it was pure heaven to me.
And the big thing down here in DC/MD was Mystic drinks. I remember the black cherry Mystic was a daily purchase in the summer.
May 7, 2008 at 3:46 am
Psonya
ROFL @ Big Blos. We didn’t have the Bodega here, we had to get our stash from the CandyLady’s House or that man who rode around in his truck before school and had you spending your lunch money on your bag of candy for the day.
Here’s one: did anybody ever eat Kool Aid Pickles? HAD to have em with a creme soda in the summertime. Good times, man.
May 7, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Timah
Wow! I was just thinking about bodegas (sometimes called the corner store) after your last Brooklyn post.
@ Dee: I actually DID cut my tongue and Jolly Ranchers have been ruined for me ever since.
Tangerine or Kiwi Strawberry Mystics. Yum!
Do you remember the Tropical Fantasy Sodas for 25 cents? Then the rumor that they were started by the Kl.an.
If anybody went to Schuyler, they’d remember the candy shop (Richie’s I think) where you could get mad stuff for pennies. Pure heaven!
May 7, 2008 at 1:08 pm
MissB
We didn’t have bodega’s down here(MD/DC) BUT they sold ALL that at the 7-11 in my neighborhood and on the stationary ice cream truck in my grandmother’s neighborhood.
I LOOOOOOOOOOVED pixie stix.
MAN, Jolly Ranchers and NowLatas(lol) were the BOMB!! I used to LOVE the penny candies Frooties, they were made by Tootsie Roll, they were deelish!!
Funyons were my ish!!! I didn’t mess with the Wise Onion Rings too much…they weren’t as tasty.
WoW good thing I was an active little girl cuz with all those unhealthy snacks I woulda been BIG as house!!!
May 7, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Melonie
ROFL!! What I would do for some Boston Baked Beans!! Even now, when I’m in North or West Philly and I come across a co’nah store, I run in and get a box!
I found some downtown but they had the nerve to be 75 cents, lol. Call me cheap but I passed!
May 7, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Steph
Dang 1969, I’m over hear tearing up! Those where the good old days in NYC! I lived in the bronx - FORDHAM ROAD!!!!
I so miss the pizza chop italian ices - rainbow or pineapple will always be my favorite!
You know what, I’m going to NYC this weekend because of Mother’s day and best believe i’m bring back some BOSTON BAKED BEANS!
May 7, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Funky Fresh
There you go homie……..
The best skelly tops came off the anti-freeze containers and the medicine containers. We used to call the anti-freeze joints “truckers” cause fill that sucka with some puddy and dudes couldn’t knock your cap all over the board…..the medicine joints were for speed….y’all don’t hear me though……
Remember when chips went to 35 cents and it fugged your whole math game up because you couldn’t get the chips and quarter water no more. You had to substitute something……..
Good post……..
May 7, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Lynn
This post was to funny, I’ve never laughed this hard in the a.m. Thanks, for a wonderful post and taking me back to my childhood…..
May 7, 2008 at 4:20 pm
G. Mo
All the sweets that you named, I used to devour… especially grape NahLaterz.
Take that Quarter Water aka Lil’ Hug and mix it up with some Ketel One when at a cookout with a bunch of kids and you’ll have one hell of a ghetto martini. Blue raspberry works best…
May 7, 2008 at 4:22 pm
ms.lee
The bodega was a candy dream come true. Apple Now and Laters, Watermelon Jolly Ranchers, Chico sticks, Cherry Chan, Boston Baked Beans, Peanut chews, quarter waters and oh yes, Funyuns!
Our skelly court was done in white shoe polish! It drove our parents nuts! LOL
Remember the pickles that you picked out of the jar, but couldn’t really eat in public because the stupid boys would ask you if you did *that*?
There’s a spot on Utica and H that serves icee’s all summer long! Love it!
Great throwback, Chica!
May 7, 2008 at 4:26 pm
ms.lee
G Mo…LMAO @ ghetto martini!
May 7, 2008 at 4:31 pm
amy
I grew up in a Seattle area suburb. We just had 7-11 but we got the same stuff. Except the quarter water. That must be an east coast thing. But come on, you HAD to have had slur-pees? (or slushies depending on where you got them) THOSE were our main target on a hot summer day! Cola, cherry, blue raspberry, or 7-up!!!
And no pineapple soda either. We always loved Shasta soda. I wanna shh-shhh-shhhhasta! Tiki punch and grape were always the favorites. We only had them when we went camping though for some reason.
And my hostess pie was ALWAYS CHERRY!!! Still love those!
May 7, 2008 at 5:04 pm
1969
Ms. Lee…..I forgot the Cherry Chans!!!!! I love some Cherry Chans. Complete with the stereotypical Asian on the box. LOL
May 7, 2008 at 5:05 pm
1969
Amy….we had no 7-11’s in Brooklyn growing up. We just got our first one’s a few years ago. So we never had slurpees. Crazy right? But I am telling you.. a Rainbow icy>slurpee any day!!!
May 7, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Drea
I am enjoying this moment down memory lane while I drink my Pineapple soda and eat my strawberry bananna now laters (right now)! LOL Some habits don’t die. We aren’t that much different in the things we did and ate here in Baltimore because we did the Icees or Italian Ice, the now laters (because we did not call them Now AND Laters), the Jolly Ranchers, Fun Dip, all of that! Wow, I miss those days. I still eat alot of that stuff but in moderation. The kids in my family always ask me if I have any candy in my pocketbook and best believe there is alot of those nostalgic delights buried in there somewhere.
May 7, 2008 at 8:27 pm
sdg1844
OMG! I grew up in Harlem and this trip down memory lane is hilarious. I still love Alexander The Grape candy. I just found your site and it’s great.
I used to love coco de helado from the cart the old Puerto Rican man used to push around Spanish Harlem.
http://funkyfingaproductions.blogspot.com/
May 7, 2008 at 8:33 pm
nineteen69
sdg1844 welcome!! The pidaugua man? Whatchu know about dat?
May 8, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Dee
My husband wanted to add that he used to have”dummy” skelly tops so no one would take his good ones. I never played, so I have no idea what he is talking about.
May 9, 2008 at 2:33 am
Honest
Man you brought back some memories. The Bodega near and dear to my heart and where I bought my first wine coolers. Eastern Parkway and Franklin Avenue. Represent!
May 9, 2008 at 4:35 am
After Hours
Hello Miss Nineteen69! I used to be a lurker, but a lurker no more. This post is forced me to post a comment.
Now and Laters/Jolly Ranchers/Bit-O-Honey/Mary Jane (the candy, my people- get your mind out of the gutter)/Wise Chips/Dip Sticks/Pop Rocks/Slim Jims/Lemon Heads/1 cent candy/2 cent candy/Mr. Softee *insert the jingle*
Bodega? I haven’t used that term in a long time. I just recently schooled my colleague at work (I work in Center City, near Old City). I broke it down to the bare essence- it is basically a corner store. He attempted to compare it to a Wawa or 7-11. I responded by stating- you drive to the Wawa or 7-11, I walk to the bodega! Or, at least I used to…
When I was a youngin’ growing up in Harlem, I used to see the older kids playing skulley/skelly. They used the bottom of the school chair legs as a top with asphalt inside as weight (I always wondered why some of the chairs at school were uneven). I ddn’t start playing the game until I moved to the South Bronx. After consuming the orange sherbet of a Push Up, the plastic stick was discarded and the top was filled with modeling clay. The bottom of the top was smoothed on the ground- perfect for the waxing of assets on the skelly court! Classic!!!
-After Hours
May 13, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Roycee
Bubalicious (Wild Cherry)
Chico Sticks
Sour Pickle from the barrell 99cents
Mike and Ikes (they were my favorite)
OHMYGOD After Hours took it there with Skully (Scummy we called it on my block too) I havent played that game in CENTURIES LOL!!
May 14, 2008 at 4:06 pm
nineteen69
After Hours….welcome and thanks for commenting. How are you gonna lurk when you live in Philly??? Come on. We are pratically cousins!
Love your response!!!!
May 15, 2008 at 3:19 pm
sundaze
I just got misty reading this. *Taking my butt to ex.ped.ia to book a flight home*