Who Remembers? – IOTW Report

Who Remembers?

Friday, 18 November 2016, 21:23 BFH Uncategorized 114

I was with someone and I said, “I’m going to bite that like a wax harmonica.”

They acted like it was the most bizarre reference ever. I asked, “you don’t know what a wax harmonica is?”

“Nope.”

And this is why it’s good to have a blog.

Who remembers?

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114 Comments on Who Remembers?

  13. Absolutely I remember wax harmonicas and, gasp, candy cigarettes with red tips. Over Christmas, when it was time to head outside with cousins to shoot fireworks, one of the adults would give us a lit cigarette to serve as a punk.

  14. Ok I may have had a few of those. Only because I remember hating anything of ‘wax’ nature in candy and non-candy. lol. I couldn’t stand the fangs, soda bottles, lips, fruit shapes that had half eyedropper’s worth of liquid candy in them either. 😀

  18. We used to sell them in our store when we occasionally could buy them wholesale. Can’t remember for sure, but they might have been 5 cents. Wax lips and wax teeth were a penny each but after a few years, we had to increase the price to 3 cents each or 2 for a nickel.

  19. I think I don’t remember these very well because at the age I’d have been making irritating noise with them, I was living in South America where if you were tall enough to see over the counter in the fireworks store, you could buy anything up to about a quarter stick of ditching dynamite, or it’s equivalent. Or so it seemed to us! So, we clearly had the means to make much, much, MUCH more annoying noise than those dinky wax whistles. (-:

  31. No, BFH, not bicycles, taffy. I have no idea why they were called banana ‘bikes’,they were yellow squares of banana flavored taffy wrapped in yellow paper, popular in the 1950’s.

  35. Wax lips, mini wax soda bottles,candy cigarettes, licorice candy records, Mary Janes, those sugar dot things on a paper strip, lick-m-ade and many more but no wax harmonica.

  41. “87 years old you children”

    Anyone 87 years old would never post that. So you’re either suffering from Alzheimers or you’re a troll. And if it’s the first, you’re gonna die real soon. Mmmmmmbwaaaaahahahahaaaaaah.

  43. As a kid in Japan, they sold ice cream in a thick balloon-type of material. As if it were a water balloon but filled with soft ice cream. They would NEVER allow that in this country because of ‘safety hazards’.

  52. I remember everything mentioned thus far, even the wax harmonica and Beech-Nut gum from the turn style gum machine for a penny (there were two gums to a little box), and the Coke machine where you raised the lid and slid the Coke bottle through the rails.

    Also, the ape-hanger handlebars and a playing card attached to the front fork with a clothespin for the spokes to hit it.

  58. I had a mini-bike.
    Way too heavy. Could never get it to go fast.
    Tecumseh. I could probably run faster than it.

    Ugly thing.
    Bastardized Trail Horse… orange/red.Green seat.
    Loud like a jack hammer.
    Burnt your legs

  63. Now, here’s another “does anyone remember…” In about 1957, in Coronado CA, there was a candy store that had penny candy. There were probably 20 or 30 glass jars behind the counter glass, and some were a penny a piece, some were two-fers, some three-fers, and the big gooey ones were two or *gasp* three cents EACH. The proprietor would take a little bag and he’d put in whatever you pointed at and then ring it up.

    This is one of the small but still delightful memories of when I was a kid. Anybody else?

  64. Me too.
    I liked any of them…
    Pea Picker was my last choice.

    But the Apple Krate was first choice, and if you raised the seat real high and had a huge sissy bar and put Ape Hangers on it and lengthened the front, that was the Cherry Picker.

  69. … chocolate babies, paper dots (candy; before LSD), Mike & Ike’s, Snow Caps, candy whistles, pixie sticks, root beer barrels, dots (the liquorish kind; before gummy bears), Good & Plenty. Turkish Taffy & Mary Janes would pull the fillings (from eating all that sugar) right out of your head

    … loved my Schwinn Stingray banana bike, (mine was gold w/ a cheater slick …. but boy, you had to be a kid to ride one of those … w/ a 20″ wheelbase & that tiny sprocket you had to pedal at 1000 rpm to go 10′
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/1966-SCHWINN-STINGRAY-EARLY-BOYS-MUSCLE-BIKE-BLUE-S2-BANANA-SEAT-VINTAGE-TIRE-/351902548835?hash=item51ef06c363:g:JYAAAOSwHMJYJNIy …

  74. @UncleAl ~ I remember a place like that ‘Ray’s Variety’, a little store up from my Grandfather’s barber shop. I’d sweep the shop floors, empty the trash, run errands for the barbers & by the end of the day I’d get a quarter. I’d run to Ray’s, get a Coke (all soda, pop was ‘Coke’ in those days) from the big ‘Coke’ ice chest (you had to open the top, lean in & soak your arms in ice water up to your elbow to pick out your bottle) … there was ever kind of flavor … Nehi Grape, Orange Crush, Frostie Root Beer, Dr. Pepper, Coke, Pepsi, RC Cola, 7-Up, Crème Soda … for 10 cents. Then I’d get a candy bar for a nickel, go raid the penny candy jars … my fortune well-spent on the cornucopia of everything that was bad for me … ahhhh, the memories

  78. I bought one of those Schwinn bikes (mine was an Orange crate) about 50 years ago when I was 13 with money I earned from my paper route. It cost me about $60, it was a really cool bike that got stolen a lot but some how I always managed to get it back. Wish I still had it only because aging baby boomers are paying big bucks for these bikes. Biggest disadvantage was it had a long pedal stroke which just about killed me when a friend and I went on a long bike ride out in the country once, he on his normal 5 speed and me pedaling that thing to death to keep up with him. But it was cool. There was a candy store/general store etc. right around the corner from my Grandfather’s farm back in the early 60’s that sold candy cigarettes, all kinds of wax candy, fizzies etc. that my brothers and my cousins went to when we went over to Couer d Alene, Id. to visit. And somewhere there’s a picture of me smoking a candy cigarette with a little puff of fake smoke coming out of it. Good times were had by all, it was all good clean fun and we even played baseball in my Uncles cow pasture using dried up cowpies for bases. It was fun until you got a squishy base, one of my brothers tells me my Dad fell backwards head first swinging at a baseball and hit his head on a rather squishy cowpie, somehow I missed that one.

  85. Rode around on bicycle, collecting discarded bottles (2 cents deposit refund) enough of them to buy another 16 oz. drink and a moon pie.
    Rexall drugstore – 10 cents for Superman comic books. 10 cents for a root beer in a frosty nug (extra five cents to make it a float with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream). A banana split was pricy at 40 cents.

  86. Wax harmonicas were here every Halloween in the late 60s and early 70s. Maybe it was regional?

    Banana Bikes were a small square of banana flavored taffy candy wrapped in wax paper. Made by Bikes.

    Bikes with banana seats, sissy bars, and ape hanger handle bars were mostly Schwinn Sting Rays here.

  88. We made a 3-wheeler chopper in metal shop in the 8th grade, out of two 10-speed bike frames. Cut one set of forks and welded them on to the other. Is that how you guys extended your front ends?

    The 3-wheeler turned out to be a useless piece of shit, but it sure looked cool when we built it. lol

  89. Wow, lots of comments. I remember those but I think we called them pan flutes. Wax lips, wax bottles, wax teeth. And add the dots on paper, coiled licorice with a red dot in the middle, candy necklaces, candy cigarettes, atomic fire ball, Neccos, and my Mom’s favorite – Seven Up candy bars (had seven different sections with different fillings).

    We would get our allowance (.35) on Saturday and head to Sandy’s Grocery Store for a bag of penny candy!

  90. I remember them and always got them around Halloween. I believe we paid a nickel for them. We’d usually get one or two when we would go Trick-or-Treating. You could chew on them all day, then put them away overnight and chew them the next day.

  92. Man, that really takes me back! We had those every Halloween when I was a kid. As I recall, you could actually get some noise out of one until the heat from your mouth started to melt the sound-making parts. Then you would succumb to the urge to stat biting chunks off and chewing them. Chewing, but not swallowing, of course. Except for a slight spice flavor, they were pretty much tasteless. Same for the wax lips, which didn’t last very long; once you bit though the part where you held them in place with your teeth, they were toast.

    Good memories – thanks for the nostalgia.

    🙂

  94. I remember wax lips, wax teeth, wax rootbeer bottles… I hated them! xD
    My Dad used to buy them and while all of my siblings would happily munch on them, I would just play with it and then take a big bite out of it, spit it into the trash and throw the rest away. [Not a fan of ‘wax’ candy. Jellied or gummy though? Yes.]

  95. @MJA, and Buster Brown boring white cotton underwear.
    That flower fabric, just found a small stash of late ’60’s early’70’s Mod fabric at the thrift store. Peter Max on magic mushroom or something. I do remember having freaky wild Peter Max tights. They may have come from the base PX.

    BFH I remember the wax harmonicas and the little liquid filled witches. My favorites were the wax witch finger nails. We used to get them at the Roses 5 and 10 Store, wood floors, ceiling fans and a lunch counter.
    http://www.collectingcandy.com/wordpress/?p=5104

  99. I used to visit my grandmother in Salisbury, NC. Wink’s Barbecue was the place to go for real pit cooked barbecue, hush puppies and vinegar cole slaw. She had a sock coin purse and would give me pennies to ‘play’ the gumball machines. Loved all the plastic charms and favorites were little guns and horses.
    Good memories and ancient history.
    Thanks Fur for the smiles.

  103. Yeah. There was a whole series of wax. candies. Some were filled with colored liquid; little coke bottles and, about three inch tubes, tubes. Also there were different types of lip models; big red lips, big red lips with white buck teeth, and red lips with white vampire fangs.

    I’ve experienced and consumed all these various wax products, as they were commonly part of the junk candy formulary. The liquid filled ones were bitten open, drunk and the wax was chewed flavorless, spit onto the sidewalk or street, and became dull black spots. It was a common sight to see chewed wax on the ground.

    The lip ones had some kind of crappy flavoring, and I may have taken those to full digestion. Wax harmonicas, like the one you have pictured, were common around Halloween time, most of them were year round as well. Having read that harmonica label, it looked like there was a patent pending #. Made me wonder who’s the mastermind behind that Nobel Peace Prize idea.

  104. got one of those schwinn knock offs hanging in my garage. Its a banana bike by Huffy. Was my wifes. I had one too, it got stolen right away by some litlle bastard in Salem oregon.

    I drove my older siblings around our old stomping grounds some time back. Between my old house and the jr. high i went to, I remembered a few neighborhood mom and pops, but my bro recalled 7 i think. A bottle of Mt. Dew was a dime. popsicles a nickel, and i do remember those flute things.

  106. Gosh this is evocative. Walking up the hill to grade school alone, past the hole in the wall small general store to buy the wax sweets, 2 cents, going to school, returning home down the hill by the river, with 5 cent Coke at the bottling plant, and 10 cent bread hot from the Cowens bakery.

    Are kids are even allowed to walk and experience their surroundings any more?

  108. Oh you lot missed the delight, it seems, of the sort of stomach ache only Turkish Delight can give you. Ate some again at age 20 and nearly gagged. How did I ever eat that crap?

    Oh and , lol, my son used to jump off his bike but only because when he finally figured out how to ride it, he didn’t know how to stop, so leaping off was his first idea. I can tell it was thrilling to him, though, and suspect he learned how to stop sooner than he let on.

  110. I do not remember the wax harmonicas, but I do recall the wax lips (loved those, even though they made me drool – could not clench them in my teeth AND hold back the saliva), the candy cigarettes, the “stingray” bicycles (they were not just for dudes…they had them in “girl colors,” too). My bestie had one and that banana seat was perfect for riding double, and if you were really up for a challenge, you could sit a third kid on the handle bars and ride triple! Great fun for the riders but exhausting for the kid who had to pedal!

    Thanks for the comments, everyone. Fun trip down memory lane!

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