Halloween Treats

It’s Halloween and all across America, legions of young trick-or-treaters will fan out in their annual quest to amass pure confectionary treasure.

Tiny ghouls and goblins will be out in search of Skittles, Snickers and Smarties. They’ll come back after their hour-long sojourn in the crisp October evening and pour out their treasurers on the living room carpet. Before bedtime, they’ll begin sorting treats from the ‘must haves’ to the ‘not so bads’ to the ‘trade these to little brother’ categories.

Sadly, there is one type candy they WON’T be able to find on this Halloween – Kraft Fudgies.

Lisa and I have actually talked about Kraft Fudgies over the years. We both liked them a lot.

They were a companion to Kraft Caramels. You might remember them. When you bought a bag of Kraft Caramels there were usually a dozen or so Kraft Fudgies in the package. The lighter caramels were packaged in cellophane but their chocolate counterparts were wrapped in gold foil.

They had the same square shape and general consistency as did the caramels but they sported a rich chocolate flavor unlike anything else you could find along the candy counter. Best I can tell from a quick internet search: they were introduced in the 1950s but gone by the late 1970s.

The website inthe70s.com features an entire section devoted to popular foods of the 1970s and a subsection for Kraft Fudgies. Incidentally, there is also a subsection on this website for another vanishing snack food of the 70s – a real favorite in the Gary household when I was growing up – Chippos brand potato chips.

But as good as they were, you wouldn’t generally expect to find Chippos after a Halloween haul. Kraft Fudgies, on the other hand, were usually a staple item – along with mini packs of Life Savers (5 Flavor variety), Hershey miniatures and candy corn. But as went the AMC Gremlin, Pet Rocks and “Welcome Back Kotter,” so went Kraft Fudgies.

By the 1980s, disco was gone and so were these unique candies.

Anyway, the Halloween-goers of the modern era probably won’t miss a confection from a by-gone day. Their plastic pumpkins will be filled the brim at any rate. And new candy varieties will sooth their sweet tooth just as different types satisfied our’s.

Still, hope springs eternal.

Just the other day, I was walking through the grocery store and passed the candy aisle on my way to frozen foods. There, I saw a display of Kraft Caramels (along with popsicle sticks and other accessories to facilitate the production of caramel apples for your Halloween party). I couldn’t resist the temptation to pick up a package and inspect it hoping, by some off-chance, that a retro candy marketing guru might’ve brought back the gold foil for a nostalgic encore performance.

Alas, the bag was gold free.

JG

(Source: inthe70s.com)

Originally posted 10/31/2011