I think I posted about this before.

But I don’t care – I’m a fat OLD lady.  We repeat ourselves!

At least, this one does.

Get used to it.

Growing up in Bay City, Michigan, there were two candy emporiums.

One was large with so many choices – and is still there – of course, I refer to St. Laurent’s.

The other was a tiny storefront on the West side – I don’t even know what it’s name was.

It was run by an elderly man and was filled with rice krispy treats and the most delicious fudge and caramel corn.

St. Laurent’s had my two favorite candies in the world though.

Fizzers (made by Swizzels Matlow Ltd. in England).

Fizzers – NOT Fizzies – those precursors to today’s water enhancers and which were fun to eat directly from the foil wrap!  (Look!  I got rabies!)

They look like Smarties (not the English Smarties – which are English M&Ms – the pastel colored chalky disk Smarties).

But they are so much better.  They are loaded with something that makes them tart and kind of fizzy (I think of them as a sugary bi-carb).

They make for the very best belches – even better than Barq’s Root Beer.

You can still get Fizzers – just not in the U.S.

You have to order them from England, and it ain’t cheap.

But a couple of times a year, I indulge in getting a big ol’ box of them.

Nom, nom, nom.

Burb, burp, burp.

My other favorite candy is not available anywhere.

They were these strange kind of greasy-chalky tubes of red candy that were supposed to look like lipstick.  The bottom was wrapped in gold foil.

(Remember – it has to be the gold foil wrapper.  Don’t be fooled by the silver wrapper ones, which are still available – those are Caramex Flipsticks and are just taffy.  Not the same thing at all.)

They were so massively sweet they made your teeth hurt.

They apparently don’t make them anymore.

I’m pretty sure they were made of something sweet (lots of sweet), No. 3 red dye, and maybe some Crisco to hold it all together.

Boy were those good.

And I have no doubt there was nothing found in nature in them.