When New Bedford Kids Ran on Penny Candy and Not Dunkin’

I mentioned Pete's Luncheonette in a recent post about Frates Dairy, prompting a reader to email to ask if I remembered Roberts Market, too. Pete's and Roberts were mere storefronts away when I was a kid on Ashley Boulevard between Shaw Street and Central Avenue in New Bedford.

Sometimes my mother would give me money to eat at Pete's Luncheonette while on lunch break from the Lincoln Elementary School just two blocks south. That usually meant an egg salad sandwich and a raspberry lime rickey from Pete's soda fountain.

Any change bought penny candy at Roberts Market on the return trip to school.

Penny candy. Who can forget penny candy?

Some of the one-cent candies I can recall include; Red Hot Fire Balls, Bazooka Bubble Gum, waxed lips, mustaches, and fingertips, waxed bottles containing a sweet, colorful liquid, wafer "flying saucers" filled with little round candies, Necco Wafers, Squirrel Nuts, Mary Jane Taffy, Hot Tamales and root beer barrels.

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My dad would give us 75 cents each for the Saturday 50-cent double feature at the Capitol or Olympia Theater, and that left a quarter for penny candy from the store next door.

Sweet!

There were many neighborhood or variety stores, and most carried a full line of penny candy. The clerk would stash your selections in a little brown paper bag and send you on your way.

Besides Roberts Market, we rode bikes to Brooklawn Variety and Al's Variety on Church Street, and my favorite, Bob & Eileen's, while visiting family there.

What were some of your favorite penny candies and your favorite penny candy stores?