When you think back about your halcyon trick or treating days, all the good times blur into one another and it’s the nasty stuff that comes to mind. For instance, the old lady on the corner who gave you apples or the creepy dude across the street who passed out tooth brushes.
Penny shares your pain and blogs through her emotional scars to list the nastiest so-called treats from her 1980s childhood.
Among the nightmares she recalls a stack of pennies wrapped in tape, chalk-like Necco wafers and the styrofoam-like affront to humanity known as circus peanuts.
I shudder at the recollections of Tootsie Rolls, candy corn and homemade sugar cookies my parents made me throw away.
What Halloween treats did you most despise?
The Worst Halloween Treats, Ever [The Penny Frugalista]
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“Pirate’s gold” – a blast from the 1980s past, unfeasibly large cakes of orange powder the taste and consistency of baby aspirin. Sold, I have no doubt, for $1 per 50 at the local discount market. Dear gods, the horror!
Those weird generic caramel things in the black and orange wrappers.
I read every comment on this article and haven’t seen anyone say they actually like those, unlike circus peanuts, candy corn, smarties, necco wafers, & black licorice.
Can we declare those peanut butter-ish toffee/taffy/caramel abominations in the orange & black wrappers to be the absolute most universally reviled candy there is? I almost think I hated the Chick tracts less..
Another nomination for horrible candy was Sugar Daddy’s. Yes, they tasted good.. but were too soft to suck like a lollipop, yet so hard it could pull teeth out long before you ever could worry about cavities.
I LOVE THOSE!!! Haha, first
I was about to chime in about how I hated them as a child, but I don’t dislike them now. Sometimes I would go so far as to say I even like them these days.
I didn’t like candy cigarettes because my dad smoked the real ones and the candy cigarette box was never as big as the real ones.I also hated candy cigs since they were sugar based chunks of candy versus chocolate – me being a pure chocolate child – no nuts in it just plain chocolate. We would play with the candy cigarettes and then throw them away…
I lived in a subdivision where several of us would hand out candy to the kids and beer to the parents. Made for a truly fun Halloween. One neighbor handed out martinis in plastic cups once — they were the cool kidless couple.
Nobody mentioned pencils? We had a librarian around the corner who always gave out pencils. Unsharpened to boot.
Bad:
Bread sticks
Mary Janes
Sixlets (fake chocolate? Eww!)
Reeses anything (not down with peanut butter)
Fruit (pears, apples, oranges)
Good:
Blow Pops
Smarties
Tootsie Rolls
Full sized anything
Oh god, how I HATED sixlets. My mom would buy them for me year round too, blargh.
aww, I must be the weird kid.
I love the carob taste of sixlets.
Bread sticks? Really? Did you at least get dipping sauce?
Add me to the list of those who love circus peanuts!
A for Necco wafers, the chocolate ones are good, but the white ones taste exactly like sand. What flavor are they supposed to be?
mmm circus peanuts and tootsie rolls!
You hush your cursed mouth! Circus Peanuts are a culinary delight!
CANDY CORN RULES.
Tootsie Rolls? Really – what the heck is wrong with Tootsie Rolls Circus Peanuts I understand
Necco wafers are one of my favorites, but they’re so hard to find usually. Luckily the market across the street from me sells them.
Candies that should be banned from existance include candy corn, circus peanuts, anything that includes Hershey’s milk chocolate and plain m&m’s.
My vote: Necco’s Mary Jane Peanut Butter Kisses.
Not Hershey’s Kisses, but, you know, those things that came in the orange and black wrappers. These were always popular among parents when I did trick-or-treating… and they were nasty. I tossed them out and went straight to the chocolate bars.
Runner up: Good ‘n Plenty. I don’t like black licorice, and this is no exception.
I read pretty much all the comments. While I agree with some of the responses, there is one item I always hated. Chewable flavored wax vampire fangs. When I first got them, I didn’t know I was supposed to gnaw on these evil onion flavored wickless candles. Who the hell chews wax? What makes it even worse, I still see these abominations being sold at candy shops.
OMG… I HATE those nasty things. Absolutely DISGUSTING, who the hell actually likes wax teeth???
Well, there was the neighbor who tried to hand out mini-Bibles and tell us all how she’d pray for our souls since trick-or-treating was an affront to God.
Seriously.
Can’t imagine how all of that silly string and toilet paper kept ending up in her tree every year.
Baby Ruths, Mr Goodbar, licorice, gummi bears, wax bottles, Almond Joys, black jelly beans, and yes those nasty, nasty Mary Janes.
I’m sure people who gave out disgusting candy did it on purpose so the kids wouldn’t eat it (or so they themselves wouldn’t eat any of the leftovers!).
Jack Chick tracts and other religious garbage.
I just ate a small bag of circus peanuts yesterday. Mmm, good! I am odd since I hate snickers and milky way.
I almost forgot about my 2nd favorite… Bottle Caps!!!
Yesss!
Bottle caps are awesome!
I would eat the cherry and the cola together.
Tell me, what are your thoughts on Razzles?
I don’t think I have ever had a Razzle.
How can you NOT like Snikers and Milky Way??? What planet are you from!!!
I like NECCO wafers, but every time I’ve had them in the last few years, I’ve been ill. Now I steer clear, even though I just love the licorice and clove ones. I do, however, despise circus peanuts, so I’ll get behind that.
We lived in apartments when I was growing up, mostly married student housing. We got lots of cheap candy, so I am well acquainted with Mary Jane taffy and Dum Dums, which seemed to be the default for cheap when I was a kid. We were just at the start of the tampered-candy scare, so we were still getting things like apples and cookies, which we didn’t eat. Hitting fraternity row was always a safe bet – a lot of them gave generously, including full-sized bars. As long as it wasn’t a Mr Goodbar, I’m happy (by the way, did you know it’s no longer made with milk chocolate? It’s primarily palm oil with enough cocoa for flavor. Ick.)
I make grab bags for Halloween. We don’t get a lot of kids – dead end street – so why not? It’s a party-favor or ziploc Halloween bag with a couple pieces of candy, a little toy (glow in the dark spider rings this year) and usually a Halloween pencil or eraser and a sticker or two. It’s cheap and the kids really like it.
I don’t know what they’re called, I don’t know if they even have a name, but they’re some sort of weird disgusting taffy-like candy in black and orange wrappers. SO GROSS. And it always seemed like old people were the only ones handing them out.
Yep, the candy that’s so sad it doesn’t even have a name.
That taffy stuff that comes in black and orange wrappers. My kids also got some candy called “Mary Jane” a couple of years ago. I didn’t let them eat it.
POPCORN BALLS!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
God No!
Let’s see, I always hated getting apples, raisins, cookies, bags of chips/popcorn/pretzels mainly ’cause I can have that stuff anytime, Halloween is special after all. And the first three usually were thrown away for safety reasons. Pencils/erasers were hit or miss, depending on if they were cool and Halloween themed or not. Pennies were yuck. I hated people giving out those lameo plastic spider rings and stuff like that, they do not stand up to the rigors of childhood. Stickers were also hit or miss depending on if they were just generic lameo stuff or cool Halloween themed ones….
For candy I don’t like or eat a lot of the “older” candy such as mary janes or neccos. My mom always was happy to eat mine though
I don’t much like gum, or licorice or those fake chocolates wrapped in foil shapes, like pumpkins or eyeballs.
I thought the camphor-ammonia after taste of Circus Peanuts was a little strange.
The fact that people even eat circus peanuts frightens me.
Candy corn, generic doctors office lollipops, gum (generic), tootsie rolls, licorice (black flavor – yes, the flavor is black), wax teeth, strange off-brand candy, baggies of popcorn, change (typically pennies).
those FUCKING brown taffy things with stupid orange wrappers and witches and skeletons and whatnot on them. DISGUSTING!!!!!!!
hahaha completely unrelated to this post, but still on the topic of Halloween, my favorite trick-or-treating memory! we were at this one house, and when they opened the door, we all said TRICK OR TREAT and there was like 5 of us and we were oh-so-cute! as the man was putting the candy in our bags, his wedding ring fell into my cousins candy! so we all had to sit there for like 10 minutes while they dumped out her candy and sifted through it, BAWLING her eyes out! (we were like 8 i’m pretty sure) too bad he noticed, that would have been a DAMN good treat!
Astro pops… I mean wtf flavor is that even supposed to be? Gross. And I think you’re really onto something here – photos of circus peanuts apparently work as great appetite suppressants.
I love all of the bad candy. Necco wafers, circus peanuts, and candy corn. Hate smarties though.
I liked necco wafers. Mmmm drywally.
I gave my brother anything with nuts in. My favorite was Nerds because I wasn’t allowed to have them usually, and also anything gooey and minty.
So everyone loves Clark Bars, Skybars, Charlestown Chews and Dots. I always had a thing for Sugar Babies. You got to eat babies. That’s so Halloween.
One year I bought bags of candy cigarettes to pass out. The kids loved them, the parents not so much. I was a pariah for six months.
These have probably already been mentioned, but I hated those vaguely caramel-like things that came in an orange and yellow wrapper with witch/pumpkin/bat motif. I learned much later that they are salt-water taffy. Not sure if they still exist or were ever available anywhere but Canada.
The worst treats:
apples, oranges, mini-boxes of raisins
circus peanuts
Those rock-hard, burnt-tasting pieces of toffee that were wrapped in orange and black paper