“Take it back inside and give it back to the man at the counter.â€
My mom looked at me pointedly. Tears welled in my eyes. I clutched a box of Junior Mints, a box my mother knew the cashier hadn’t seen and she hadn’t paid for. I was four.
“That’s called stealing,†Mom said. “Take it back in and say you’re sorry.â€
I did. To this day, I pay for every box of Junior Mints I consume. Looking back, I’m not sure what made me choose Junior Mints that fateful day. Maybe it has something to do with the glossy chocolate coating and how it encapsulated a perfect, creamy mint center. A retro candy staple first released in 1949, Junior Mints were my first mint love. Now that I’m older, I love garden mint body spray, mojitos, and any combinations of mint and chocolate I can find. Junior Mints were my candy gateway to all things mint.
They certainly don’t seem to compare to the other candies I preferred when I was a child. I loved bright, colorful, fruity candies, sweets so chewy they tugged at fillings. I fell for gimmicks, like special candy I could squeeze from a tube or wear around my wrist. But Junior Mints didn’t have to look cool. They tasted cool.
I’ll never forget them, because they taught me a pretty valuable lesson. Just because you can easily swipe a box of Junior Mints without paying doesn’t mean you should do it. Thanks, Ma (and delicious Junior Mints).
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junior mints, mint, chocolate
When I look at the popular line of Bratz dolls, all I can think of are Wax Lips. The over-sized flavored lip-shaped wax that magically seemed to release a tasty juice when you chewed it up. Did they really turn into gum or did I just chew the wax so much that it seemed like it? How fun were these? Loads of fun! You could instantly become a superstar without Botox or a costly cosmetologist! A superstar in your own mind, perhaps. In any case, Wax Lips could transform you. They made kids confident and loving, pretending to pucker up for anyone within ten feet of them.
Wax Lips have a sort of “bit” on the back that you can slip between your lips to wear the wax lips. If you got excited and bit through that part, your fun was significantly halted. All you can do without the back piece is hold them up to your lips with your fingers. So, training yourself not to bite the back part off was a proud talent. Wax Lips used to be at all the dime-stores when I was a kid… Where have they gone? You would think with all the big-lipped dolls, they’d make a comeback.
Wax Lips were invented by the American Candy Company in the early 20th century (whoa!). Concord Confections, Ltd. picked them up in 2002, and then Tootsie Roll Industries picked up that company in 2004. The lips are now called “Wack-O-Wax” which, to me, makes them sound like a horror movie. I suppose if you were a boy on the other side of those lips, it would be like something out of a horror movie. The more boy-friendly version of Wax Lips is Wax Fangs – lips with fangs!
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