Monday, October 24, 2016

The First Halloween

The earliest Halloween I remember is one that took place in Leaf Rapids, Manitoba. I was perhaps 5 or 6 years old, and I wore a simple ghost costume, created, of course, by Mom cutting a couple of holes in a bedsheet. Snow usually comes early to Leaf Rapids, and the snow that Halloween night was incredibly thick, the winds blustery, the temperatures bone-chilling. I carried a small plastic pumpkin that was quickly filled with the candy of compassionate neighbours. We didn't have to stay out long to get a good haul, thank goodness.

I can't remember if Mom escorted me and Dad stayed home to hand out candy, or vise versa. Whoever went with me got the raw end of that deal, as we came home shivering and soaked to the skin with precipitation.

My favourite treat back then were Kraft Softee Toffees, which seem not to exist anymore. Indeed, it seems few remember the chewy delicacies, if my fruitless Internet searches are anything to go by.

I remember three or four distinct flavours: chocolate (brown wrapper), coffee (green wrapper), rum and butter (pink wrapper?) and perhaps a simple "toffee" flavour, wrapper colour unknown. These things were even better than Kraft caramels, which now, sadly, only come in vanilla.

Does anyone remember Softee Toffees, or, for that matter, chocolate Kraft caramels? 

2 comments:

  1. Softee Toffee? I'm pretty sure you read that in one of your Steven King novels. If something like as you say existed, we would have had it by now. Anyway, all my searches connect with Dreamcatcher. What a crappy movie, by the way. So, sorry, Earl.

    Sorry that I can't keep a straight face anymore. Anybody who was a Canadian kid our age edged one step closer to diabetes with Softee Toffees. Chocolate was brown, Coffee was green, Rum & Butter (my favourite) was red, and vanilla was gold. I don't recall why Kraft discontinued them, except that they probably failed to sell. Softee Toffees weren't exactly toffee so I doubt you could cook with them, something you can do with regular toffee and Kraft Caramels.

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  2. If anywhere in Edmonton will have it, it's Gummi on Whyte Ave (10345-82 Ave) -- they have tons of the old candy stuff.

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