Pez, Wax Lips, and Fizzies…Oh My!

By Lori J. Duncan

Although I was just a newborn in 1955, the introduction of the PEZ candy dispenser was destined to become a fond memory of my early childhood. Tell if I’m just dreaming, but it seems I do remember getting a PEZ dispenser with Donald Duck’s head in my Christmas stocking one year. Followed by Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. I also remember getting Mickey Mouse and some Archie characters.

Although the brick-shaped confection was created in 1927, American marketing strategies would eventually ramp up the candy company’s bottom line. Children were the target, and to this day, kids of all ages find collecting the PEZ dispenser a tasty hobby. Yes, the candy is semi-sweet, but the candy really isn’t the point, is it? Try taking a child to the candy counter. Offer him/her the choice between a chocolate truffle or a PEZ dispenser, you know what they will choose! Imagine all those dispensers I threw away or lost as a child of the 60s. Ebay sellers have sold dispensers for as high as $11,000! I’m glad my kids are sentimental. Maybe those Cabbage Patch Kids will be valuable someday!

A Halloween staple of the 50s and 60s was the wax lips. They smelled of artificial cherries, tasted like a stale candle, and the cheap ones left red stains on our faces. But we loved them just the same. I’ve looked everywhere to find out what year the plumper puckers came into existence, but all I’ve found is that the company that brought them to the candy counter was the American Candy Company, which was founded around 1899.

The celebration of Halloween in the 1950s and 60s, brought a high demand for more than popcorn balls and candy apples. Kids wanted something special. They wanted candies that they didn’t always get every day. We had contests to see who could go the longest without chewing up their lips into tasteless balls of wax. Those wax bottles of sweet mystery juice ended up the same way. A healthy replacement for bubble gum!

Who can forget Fizzies? Flavors ranged from cherry to root beer. Drop a tablet into a glass of water and watch ‘em fizz. Our parents forbade us to suck on them without putting them into water. There was just something special about making your own soft drink at home. You have to admit, the 60s marked a whole new era in marketing foods to children. I do remember the commercials and they made me ask my mom to buy things for us. That was actually before she knew they could “rot my teeth”!

Our first jar of Bosco came in a glass jar. I was so excited I ran right out to the back porch with the chocolate syrup to tell my brother. I tripped and dropped the little brown treasure. Well, it was weeks before my mom would buy it again. Just to teach me a lesson I suppose. But that’s the effect commercials of the 60s had on us. We were easy to suck in. Even television advertising was experimental. But it was working.

Then there was Fruit Stripe Gum. Pretty wasn’t it? The commercials were like mini-cartoons to us as kids. As I remember now, it really didn’t taste that great, and the flavor didn’t last but about 20 seconds. But it was sure cool to have a pack of that stuff. It was prettier than Dentyne, and it didn’t burn our tongues!

I don’t mind dating myself with these revelations. It was a happy, innocent, romantic time in our culture. Candy wasn’t the only memory I hold dear. If I could bottle my memories of the 60s, they would vividly include my experiences at the original Disneyland, Dad’s Polaroid camera…one of the first, and seeing the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. Back then, we didn’t question the ingredients of what we consumed. We trusted the products on the shelves. I think I ate a lot of candy back then. I didn’t get my first cavity until I was in my late 20s. Either way, those days may be gone, but they surely did leave some sweet memories.

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