October 30: National Candy Corn Day!

 

Who knew that candy corn was such a polarizing issue?! I don’t think you can be indifferent about candy corn… either you love it or you hate it. It’s the autumnal version of egg nog (which I will celebrate on December 24!). I, for one, love both egg nog AND candy corn. I probably wouldn’t like either very much if they were around all the time, but the fact that they’re so seasonal really makes them more special and also… nostalgic, maybe?

 

I think that’s why we like a lot of things, or, at least, why I like a lot of things. Would I feel compelled to buy animal crackers (the ones that come in the box with the string, not those gross pink and white frosted ones with sprinkles on them) if I didn’t eat them when I was little? No. There are probably weirdos out there who buy the pink and white animal crackers because their mom bought them for them when they were wee, and I can’t fault them for that. We associate particular foods with certain events and stages in our lives and maybe we try to hold on to those memories by continuously buying foods that we would never buy if they were just introduced to us today. I can’t recall any distinct memories associated with candy corn, but I do seem to associate egg nog with Christmas at my grandma’s house. I think she buys it for much the same reason other people do (you’re “supposed to” buy egg nog for Christmas, even if no one asks for it), and I remember having a little cup of it every Christmas. I didn’t realize people put alcohol in egg nog (or that people make it at home instead of buying it out of the dairy case next to the milk…) until I was in college and went to a holiday party and got surprisingly tipsy off of what I assumed was plain ole’ egg nog.

 

I don’t know why I spent so much time talking about egg nog… now I’ll have nothing to write about on December 24. I guess I will have to write about Santa, instead.

 

 

Tomorrow: National Candy Apple Day