Chick-O-Stick

Picture_029

I don’t have too many memories attached to foods. Just a few: my mother always making sausage balls at Christmas (I really need to write that recipe down), a really bad memory of my mother making me eat vegetable soup (I just really don’t like my vegetables all mixed together, never have, never will and still can’t stand the smell of it) and then there is this candy.

This is a Chick-O-Stick. It’s a crunchy peanut butter and toasted coconut candy. It”s similar to a Butterfinger just without the chocolate. Eatting one cannot be good for your teeth. It’s the kind of candy that gets good and stuck in your teeth. I think they make bite sized ones that you can find at Wal-Mart, but the big ones I can only find at gas stations now.

It’s most likely my favorite candy. It’s one of those foods that has a strong memory attached to it. A memory related to my grandfather (my dad’s dad).

I don’t have many detailed memories of my pawpa. He died of colon cancer 3 months before I turned 11. I can remember sitting with him at the piano, visiting him in the hospital before he died. And I can remember him buying me Chick-O-Sticks.

I was his oldest grandchild. And even though I know he didn’t favor one grandchild over another he had a way of making me feel extra special just as I’m sure he made the other grandchildren feel also.

I can remember going with pawpa to the small town about 6 miles from the rural community where I grew up. I can’t remember the exact store where we would go or what we would do while in town, but I do remember it was on the main street through town. I doubt that most of those stores are even still there. Back then it was a big deal when we “went to town.” Living out in the country when most moms were stay at home moms you just didn’t go to town, but maybe once a week.

Before we would leave town to go back to his house Pawpa would always buy me a Chick-O-Stick. I’m sure as I got older the younger cousins would come along with us and I’m sure he would buy them a candy as well. But for me, the Chick-O-Stick will always make me think of my pawpa.

Share article

Copyright © 2023 Amy Nabors.