Author Archives: Cindy

About Cindy

Married, Female, Empty Nester Love to garden, cook, read.

Love my Good & Plenty!

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So, it started off innocently enough. I had asked one of the guys I work with about a delivery and he said, “Ask Charlie.” So, after I did, I went back to this other guy and here’s the rest of our conversation.

I began, “Charlie said.” And then, I was suddenly struck with a candy commercial memory. So, I sang, “Charlie said, love my Good & Plenty. Charlie said, really rings my bell. Charlie said, love my Good & Plenty. Don’t know any other candy that I love so well.”

Him: “What?”

Me: “Good & Plenties.” And then he gives me that I dunno what yer talking about look.

Me: “You don’t remember Good & Plenty?”

Him: “No”

Me: “The little pink and white licorice candies sorta oblong shaped, came in a little purplish rectangle box?”

Him: “No.”

Me: “And in the commercial, the little animated guy – Choo Choo Charlie –  wore a train engineer’s cap, rode up and down the hills in his little train and sang the Good & Plenty theme song.”

Him: “Nope. Well, maybe I remember the candies, used to get them at the theater, I think, but no, I don’t remember nuthin’ about your Choo Choo Charlie fellow.”

Strange, I thought, that someone ten years older than me doesn’t remember this commercial. So, since I love the internet, I looked it up.

And, to my delight, I discovered a few semi-interesting facts. Did you know that Good & Plenty was first produced in 1893 by Quaker City Confectionary Company in Philadelphia and is considered the oldest branded candy in the US? And, did you know that, although it had several owners during the 1900s, Good & Plenty was bought by Hershey Foods in 2008!  (Hey, you never know, it could be a Jeopardy question one day.)

I love Good & Plenty! Wanna see the commercial? I found it on You Tube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExSlyoVTX3I

Anyway, it got me to thinking about other old time candies I use to love as a kid.

Does anyone remember those candy cigarettes that if you blew on them, some white powder would come out that was suppose to look like smoke?

How about Boyer Mallo Cups and Boyer Smoothies. “Boy, oh Boy oh, Boyer Smoothie.” Yeah, I vaguely remember a song associated with that one, too!   Did you know that the Boyer Company in Altoona, PA was the first to create a candy in a cup shape like that? Yep, it predates Reeses Peanut Butter Cups! Do you remember the cardboard play money included that you could collect and redeem from their prize catalog?

How about Black Jack, Beemans and Clove gum?

Do you remember Ice Cubes? God, I loved those, too. A chunk of chocolate that melted like an ice cube in your mouth!

Necco wafers!

Some of these items are no longer available everywhere. I had a Mallo Cup about a year and half ago when I was visiting sister peep, Bonnie.  She had one on her kitchen counter to greet me when I arrived! And, it was probably the first one I had in over 20 years. You just can’t find them in the south.

You can find lots of this “candy we grew up on” on the internet.  You can place an order from the comfort of your desk  and  get it shipped right to your door.

Somehow, though, it’s a lot more fun, stumbling upon a candy memory by accident, when you least expect it.  A candy surprise!

You know, I think I’m going to try to stumble upon a Boyer Smoothie on my next trip to Pennsylvania!

Please tell me I’m not the only one that remembers the Choo Choo Charlie song.

And, what other candies did we love when we were little kids?

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The Cell Phone

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Two events transpired recently that caused me to get a cell phone. What? No cell phone, you say. What planet am I from? Gee, even kids in kindergarten have cell phones.

I know. I used to have one, but when I chose to live a more simple, less chaotic life, I gave it up. And, I haven’t missed carrying one around with me for over five years. 

I guess I could go on a tirade here and give you all my reasons for hating cell phones, but let me just jump ahead to what happened recently.

First, several weeks ago while on my way home from work, I got stuck on the interstate behind an accident. This wasn’t just any little ol’ accident. This was a doozy that happened on the crest of the bridge going over Lake Marion on I-95 and involved a semi and several cars.  I was about a minute behind it.

It was still daylight when the accident first occured and traffic slowed to a stop. I didn’t think I’d be stuck for long, so I pulled out my current read (The Story of Edgar Sawtelle) for something to kill time. Thirty minutes later, at dusk, it was too hard to read  and I was wondering if my hairdresser would continue waiting for me to get there for my cut.

An hour later, I wondered if hubby was beginning to wonder why I was late. An hour after that, I knew he’d be worried. 

I thought about borrowing someone’s phone. But,  gee, it was just too dark to approach a complete stranger’s car, rap on a window and ask to use a cell phone.

So, I sat and I waited. I kept thinking that surely we’d get moving soon. And, of course, we didn’t.

Now, there is a story on being stuck in the dark with a bunch of strangers, with nothing to eat or drink and it’s cold, and you know your family may be getting worried about you, and your body is starting to ache, and there’s nothing to do, etc., but telling that tale digresses from my ultimate point – that it would have been pretty damn good to have a cell phone in that situation.

The second incident occured even more recently. While on my way home from work the other day, my car died. The tensioner pulley broke, which is what holds the serpentine belt in place, which controls steering, water pump and alternator. Stuck on the side of the road, my choices were pretty limited. I ultimately decided to walk into town to use a phone and accepted a ride from a total stranger so I could get to a phone to call for assistance.

I know that with an aging automobile and given the remoteness of where I live and considering the length of my trip to work everyday, having a cell phone is a smart decision.

But tell me this, why does this tiny little thing feel so heavy in my purse?

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What it’s about

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Now that I have been doing this blogging thing for a few months,  I thought it might be a good idea to give everyone an update on what my blog is about and how to better use it.

First, on what Cindy’s Country Corner is about. Well, honestly, I’m still defining what it is about. You see, there are many blogs out here on the web that have specific focuses. There are scrapbooking blogs, photography blogs,  marketing blogs, news blogs, latest technology blogs, mommy blogs, hunting blogs, nature blogs, even how to write blogs blogs, etc. Bloggers use their blogs to share their love or  knowledge about something specific or to sell something.

Well, I like cooking, gardening, reading, golfing and boating. I love living a simple, rural life. I’m in my 50s, and a member of AARP. I love my fixer-upper house.  I love my family and my friends and my cats.

I am finding that I can’t focus on just one of those subjects. My life is all of those things and so, therefore, is this blog. I am sure there will be times when I write something that doesn’t appeal to you in the slightest. But, occasionally, you may find something written here that piques your interest, or triggers a particular memory for you, or makes you laugh. I hope that is the case.

I thought writting a blog would be super easy. It is harder than I thought. Gosh, even teeny boppers have blogs on MySpace and Facebook. How hard could it be? Well, what I didn’t consider is my age. I got my first personal computer when I was about 30 years old, which means that most everyone under the age of 30 has had access to a PC since birth. They are incredibly technologically savvy. For me, it’s like trying to teach myself a foreign language with a book for dummies.  Oh, I’ll study and I will learn lots of words and phrases, but I will never be able to speak this language fluently. Know what I mean?

So, with that said, let me tell you a few things I’ve learned that might help you navigate my blog.

First, is my home page. The content on it changes as often as I add a new post.   I usually add two new posts a week.  It would be great if I could add a new post everyday, but if I forced myself to devote that much time to this project each day, it would become a chore and not fun for me anymore.

Now, I know you don’t like to check my site each day only to discover there is nothing new. The fix for that is to subscribe to my RSS feed. With it, you  receive notification when an update to my site has been made. Pretty cool, huh? Now, I didn’t know anything about RSS feeds before I started this blog, so I’ll explain.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. You can use a feed reader to automatically discover when I’ve posted new content to my blog. If you already have a feed reader, just click on the RSS icon (the little orange button with a couple of curved lines in it on the upper left side of my blog home page). If you don’t have a feed reader, you can get one for free from Google. Just go to http://google.com/reader to sign up, and then come back to my site and click on that little orange button.  That’s all there is to it! And what makes this feature even cooler is that since most web sites offer an RSS Subscription button, you can receive notification of updates for other sites you like to visit, too.

Okay. Now on to Comments. You have the opportunity to make a comment on each new article I post. The way to do this is to click on the Comments Link (It is located on the same line as the date of the post, right under the title.) If you are the first to comment on that article, you click where it says “No comments.” If you are not the first, click where it says 2 comments, 5 comments, 50 comments, etc.

Comments are very important to me. They are the only indication I get that you have read an aticle. Tell me that you like what I’ve written or not. Tell me if you agree or disagree. Do you like the pictures? Does my story make you think of  something similar that happened to you once? Does it make you glad or sad or angry or melancholy or WHATEVER?  The more you are willing to comment, the more others will be, too. Comments are really what can make a webblog fun.  Often, it is fun just to follow the comments on a particular post! So, please, don’t be bashful! Throw your two cents in!

As a matter of fact, if you are really inspired by a particular post, maybe you can write your story for publication on this site!  A few examples: Julie could permit me to publish her journal entry about being stuck behind a traffic accident for three hours.  My friend Pam could write about growing up on a farm. One of my sisters could write about “the yell” or about our horses, or Pickin’Chicken. (There is only one story off limits to my sisters – the one about the condoms! I made a promise.) Maddie could write about her gardening adventures. The sky is the limit! Yes, you could write your stories and the rest of us could comment on them! How much fun is that! You would get your own byline (I’ll print your first name only) and I would supply your relationship to me, i.e., sister, aunt, friend, complete stranger, so that everyone could see the connection.

Well, I’ve bored myself silly now, so off to make dinner and watch the snow. Yes, you heard right – snow in South Carolina on March 1. In like a lion, out like a lamb, so they say.

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