The General Store

I grew up in typical suburbia where the closest thing to a corner store was a 7-Eleven. We also had a Stroh’s Ice Cream Parlor that sold ice cream in different flavors and had a whole wall of penny candy. Remember penny candy? Remember how you could have the smallest bit of change and still end up with a bag full of all your favorites?

This past week, my sisters and I took a day trip to Lexington, Michigan, a small town along Lake Huron. It has a main street that leads down to the harbor and beach with lots of wonderful little shops, restaurants and a great music theater.

One of our favorite stores was the General Store. It was a delightful mix of old and new and yes, it had penny candy! Even though the penny candy now cost 10 cents each, it was still penny candy in my mind.

They had all the old favorites - Taffy, Slo Pokes, Flying Saucers, Wax Lips, Squirrels, Mary Janes, Bit O Honey, Jaw Breakers and Black Jacks! We were like kids in a candy store - ooohing and ahhhing and shouting out exclamations like, "Oh my gosh! Remember those?"

We couldn’t resist the temptation, so we each bought a bag of our favorites. It was so much fun picking out what we wanted and walking away with our little brown bag of goodies!

We totally enjoyed the rest of our day as well.

We visited all of the little shops,

got lunch from a fabulous little deli,

and enjoyed a picnic in the park by the harbor.

It was a truly wonderful day, but I still think the best part was the penny candy! I am clearly a kid at heart!