A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 17

 Today's post brings back some fond memories of a small town Christmas. My Grandmama was born in a town in Eastern North Carolina called Middlesex. It was such a small, out of the way place that in the 1980s and 90s, it seemed like the rest of the world had passed it by. 

Middlesex's only grocery store was an IGA that still used the original signage and displays from when it opened in the 1950s. The local pharmacy carried generic comic books from publishers I had never heard of as well as wrestling mags promoting superstars I'd never seen on TV before. The video store carried Betamax videos in a world that had gone VHS. As for the general store, it had a wooden plank floor that could have doubled as dirt with all the dried red clay carried in from the boots of generations of farmers. 

Side view of that old General Store with a modern mural added.

The owners of these small businesses might not have had a lot. Yet their efforts to decorate for the holidays were more impactful to me than any CEO's mansion on Madison Avenue. Anemic gold garland and unraveling red satin balls hung from the ceiling of each small store. Dime store decorations of plastic reindeer with ballerina-like legs lined the service counters. The bank had faux wrapped presents underneath an even less realistic artificial tree lined with a strand of the tiniest colored lights ever crafted. Only 5 of the lights ever blinked. And then there was my favorite store in Middlesex: the general store.

Just like every other shop in Middlesex, the general store was owned by a distant relative of my grandmama's. I think he was a cousin of her's. Only the windows of the general store were decorated for Christmas. Fake snow edged each corner. The latest sleds, a teddy bear or two and a plastic Santa Claus head were the only indications that December 25th was soon approaching. But it was the display case that drew my attention for our annual pre-Christmas visit to Middlesex. After visiting her mother at her childhood home and then her sister who worked at the bank, my Grandmama took me over to the general store for there amazing assortment of penny candy.

Dozens of old fashioned candies filled the glass display case next to the register. I've already talked about the ribbon candy I would foolish buy, thinking it tasted a whole lot better than it looked (in case you missed that post, it didn't.) A couple other things I like to buy will appear in future postings. Of those candies, one of my all-time favs were the Chocolate Covered Peanuts. And these peanuts weren't just covered with a thin layer of confection, these things were double-dipped! Each peanut was lightly dusted with salt. That saline tang was the perfect contrast with that rich milk chocolate. 

Despite being called penny candy, everything behind the candy counter at the Middlesex General Store was 99 cents a pound. Each year, I was allowed to buy a dollar's worth of candy. I usually got a quarter pound the ribbon candy, a quarter pound of other hard candy and 4 bits worth of chocolate covered peanuts. All filled in a single brown paper bag. Being family, the owner of the store always gave me a little bit extra with the chocolate covered peanuts. 

Going from Middlesex back to Raleigh, NC seemed to take forever. Especially back then when a lot of those time-saving highways had yet to be paved. I would make a huge dent in my inventory of chocolate covered peanuts. Oddly enough, I always had enough ribbon candy to choke a horse. I see that question about if you could tell yourself as a kid one thing, I think my advice would be to 'Skip the ribbon candy. Stock up on chocolate covered peanuts!'

These days they make a triple-covered chocolate covered peanut. In my opinion, that's just too much chocolate. Another bit of advice about CCPs is to not make them individually by hand at home. It's too much work. Instead, go with this easier alternative that seems to cover the perfect ratio of 2 parts chocolate to 1 part peanut. With only 2 ingredients and utilizing the microwave, this is a fun recipe you can do with the kids. I present to you Chocolate Peanut Clusters!

Enjoy!