I don't understand Candy Corn. It tastes funny, yet once I eat one I must keep eating them until my stomach is on sugar overload. Even then I want to keep at it. Do I simply have a sugar addiction? Well - I probably do, but even if there are other choices, the candy corn has some sort of hold over me. Did I mention that it tastes funny? Halloween is just about the only time I eat it. They make it all year round now, colored for just about every holiday. Maybe it's Halloween that does it for me. Perhaps I am reliving my childhood memories. Back when I was trick-or-treating, I would eat all of the other candy first, leaving the candy corn for last. Now as an adult, I home in on the Halloween colored bits of confection.
The tricolored stuff has been around for just about a century now and we Americans eat tons upon tons of the stuff according to Answers.com. It is used in video games as a way of giving players/characters extra energy or life (World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, and probably others). If you look at Halloween greeting cards, you will see many pictures of the too sweet kernels of colored corn syrup. Several years ago, someone even declared National Candy Corn Day on their web page.
How did this obsession begin? Will it ever end? I don't know, but I think I need to go eat another hand full of the stuff!
2 comments:
Up until a few years ago, I assumed that candy corn was a candy universally beloved by all. Then I spent a weekend at a Christian college student retreat that was to change my life forever.
I was a volunteer small group leader. Experience told me that any small group leader up to snuff brought food (to sharpen people's attentiveness to the Holy Spirit, of course) -- the junkier the food, the better. Candy corn seemed the obvious choice, as it was in season, everyone's favorite, and cheap. Imagine my shock when I unveiled it to my group the first night only to receive a few polite smiles and some sniggering. I passed it around and most took only a few obligatory -- some obstained completely. I was exasperated. "Wow... I thought everyone would be excited about the candy corn..." I confided after the study.
"Really?" replied one student whom I shall refer to as "Harlan" to protect his identity. He grimaced. "I've never liked that stuff. Doesn't eating pure sugar like that make your teeth hurt after a while?"
"What?? Come on Harl, that's crazy talk. I've never heard of it causing toothaches..."
To make a short story moderate in length, I decided the only thing to do was to lead these sinners by example. At every small group time the rest of the weekend I made sure I consumed the stuff hand-over-fist. And you know what? Over time the stuff gave my teeth a dull, persistant ache! Not that it stopped me from eating a bag-and-a-half (with only minor assistance from a student I shall call "Basil"), but still... And from that time since, I have been unable to eat more than a handful at a time without that same pain.
A curse? Perhaps. Maturity and moderation in the consumption of sugar candy? Not likely. That is all I have to say on the topic of candy corn.
ROFL!!!!!
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