A to Z Foods ~ Part2 of the Letter J

Grandma J mentioned JuJuBes on her blog today and it forced me to come back here and post an addendum to my A to Z Monday post---Please read my first post too though. Okay?

Short story to do with the candy called JuJuBes. This takes place around 1955 when I was a little kid, in 1st grade. It was Christmas time and I had no real concept of budgeting. Daddy had given me $5 so I could go to the Ben Franklin Store (the local 5 and Dime) to purchase my Christmas presents for the family. I assured him that I was a big girl now and didn't need any help in picking out proper gifts, so he let me walk the few yards across the courtyard from our hardware store to Billy Sick's Ben Franklin. I had 7 people to buy for. Mommy, Daddy, sister Harley, brother Wayne, Aunt Dot, Uncle Jim and Grandma. I remember buying my mother the "famous" dark blue bottle of Evening In Paris eau de cologne, the most expensive gift. I thought the bottle was beautiful and gave no thought to the smell of it's contents---capable of warding off the bubonic plague just as the original eau de cologne was thought to do!! But I digress. I'm sure I got some little metal toy for both my brother and sister, and a hanky for Aunt Dot and Grandma. I'm thinking I got Unc a balsam wood airplane because he was an airplane nut! Well, when it came time to get Daddy's gift I was down to 5cents in my pocket. So, I went to the candy counter and bought a box of JuJuBes for his present. I wrapped all my presents and put them under the tree with all the rest of the gifts. And, as was our tradition, we opened our gifts with family on Christmas Eve. Everyone seemed to appreciate their respective gifts from little Cassie...Then Dad opened his gift. He kind of scowled and held it up for all to see. I remember everyone laughing out loud and my father asking me why I would buy him a box of JuJuBes for a Christmas gift. I confessed I had basically run out of money by the time I got to buying his gift and that was all I could afford. He told me that I was obviously not old enough to go shopping by myself and I sensed his displeasure with my gift. I felt badly about that for quite some time, and of course my big sister never let me live this sad present down for years to come. It doesn't make me sad to reminisce about this. It only makes me ultra aware of how little things like that can stick with you for life. I was always referred to as "ZsaZsa" or the "bubble head" by my family so worked extra hard in school to get top honors to prove I wasn't a brainless blonde.

Ah yes, once again, those were the days my friends! All together now: Poor Cassie!!