I lived in a house on Lucas Street the first four years of my life. It's pretty challenging to remember things from that age, but there are a few foggy memories.
You've probably seen Bugles in the chips section of your local store. They are conical in shape and are salty and tasty in that delightfully artificial way. Not only that, but they perfectly sized to place on the end of little fingers and make evil pointy hands! Then eat them. My dad bought them for us on a whim one day. It was the first fun and silly thing I can remember.
Chuckles are flat, square gumdrops with a generous amount of sugar on top of them. Always five in a flat box with clear plastic on it and a cardboard backing. The colors/flavors were: red, orange, yellow, green, and black.
We must not have had a washing machine, because we went to the laundromat to do laundry. My dad took us and we went over to the vending machine, All these coin operated machines were fascinating at the time! I'm going to guess that I chose the Chuckles because they were colorful. The first candy I remember having was Chuckles from the vending machine at the laundromat.
My dad left this earth in 2006, and in actuality, it was years sooner as he suffered mightily from the effects of dementia. My memories of him are a tale for another day, but for now it's enough to say that my positive memories were far and few between. These two events give me a little positive about the man, which maybe why I remember them.
Fast forward 45 years. Our washing machine was in disrepair, so we made a few trips to the old laundromat, still there on Bloomington Street. I decided to regale my youngest, Bree, in the story of the laundromat and Chuckles. I made it really dramatic and there was a vending machine in the same place as 45 years earlier. So I walk her over there, and there were Chuckles in the machine!
Thanks, dad.
