A New And Different World

I spent yesterday in the Big Apple with my younger brother. We went places I hadn't been before. He indulged me as he's seen most of this stuff. But one place we hadn't seen was this store we went to. Now we didn't go to NYC to shop, that isn't the appeal for us. We go to museums or galleries or Central Park. But shopping? Nope. However, we had some time to kill before our train left the tracks and we decided that a good way to end the day was to buy some chocolate. Chocolate is a perfect way to end a day. Of course, it's a perfect way to begin a day, too, but I digress.

He used his "magic phone" to find a store, and the closest one was not what we expected. It was an entire store dedicate to a well-known, small, hard coated with chocolate inside candy. An entire store! Three floors dedicated to these small candies that marketing has evolved to have personalities. There are red, orange, brown, green, blue, which most of us are aware of, but did you know they have purple? Or ivory? Or pink, maroon, teal, and even more variations? The entire first floor looked to be dedicated to T-shirts, pajamas, and other paraphernalia. We were in awe! And the shirts were emblazoned with the personalities of the colors: yellow the sort of dopey guy, brown with the eyeglasses. Brother and I were giggling as we climbed aboard the escalator to the second floor. Again a merchandising paradise of mugs, sippy cups, onesies and even poker chips!

But the wonder didn't stop at the bounty of items to purchase! You could get personalized candies! That's right, get some special initials, names, clip art...all kinds of stuff put on the outside of these candies. Imagine melt in your mouth, not in your hand candy with your name on them! It was ingenious! Now to be perfectly honest, I knew you could do this, but I thought it could only be done on-line. Here we were in person! It was an opportunity too good to miss.

And so the brother and I stood in line. For quite a while. Were there a lot of people? No, but the family from a distant land in front of us was having a hard time negotiating the computer which generates the lovely names, pictures, initials, what-have-you. They were gesturing grandly to each other in what sounded like the language of the Swedish Chef from the Muppets show. They didn't look especially thrilled about the experience either. When you go about getting personalized candy, shouldn't you be happy about it? Anyway, brother and I finally got our chance and it was a hoot! I laughed so much my face hurt. And we missed our train. But I will always remember the candy store and the millions of variations of colors and laughter we shared all wrapped up in a hard candy shell!