It was old news - and most certainly fake news - but I was startled a while back when I saw this float into my Twitter timeline. You probably won't be able to read the map, but how in the world did circus peanuts come up as the most popular movie candy in Massachusetts?
Other than gag-inducing horehound drops - which I sampled as a kid on a trip to Sturbridge Village where they were sold as the type of treat that kids in the 1820's apparently grooved on - is there a worse candy than circus peanuts. Circus peanuts. Mother. Of. God.
At least, I will note, there were no candy buttons anywhere to be seen.
I could understand it if Massachusetts went with NECCO wafers, as Utah did. I'm not all that partial to NECCO wafers, and certainly would never buy them at a movie theater. (I would accept one if offered, but since I don't play Holy Communion any longer, I have no need for a NECCO wafer. They were good for that one thing.) But NECCO wafers would make some sense, as they're a native Massachusetts candy.
Baked beans would make sense here, too, even though they were invented in Chicago. I'm assuming that the map means to say Boston Baked Beans, i.e., candy-coated peanuts, are the fave for North Dakota. They can't possibly mean Boston banked beans, as in B&M out of a can and served with franks on a Saturday night. I'd rather have a steaming bowl of baked beans - espeically if I get the yummy chunk of pork fat - rather than a handful of Good 'n Plenty said no kid ever.
(God knows what to make of Kraft Cheese Singles being the most popular movie treat in Wisconsin. I know Wisconsinites are called cheeseheads. Still...)
But circus peanuts! Never in my life have I ever seen circus peanuts in the candy counter at the movies, let alone bought them.
Mostly, I'm a popcorn kind of girl. If I buy candy, it'll be M&M's or Twizzlers. Something edible.
Of course, circus peanuts have a particular meaning in my family.
Way back in the wayback - that would be 1963 - my father and the Big Three (me, Kath, Tom) drove out to Chicago for a family wedding/vacation. My mother and the Little Two (Rick, Trish) flew.
It was broiling hot and the car was, naturally, not air-conditioned.
Day One was an especially tough one, as we got a flat outside of Buffalo, which meant my father had to change the tire - and doing so meant lightening the load (the car was piled high with most of the suitcases for a family of seven for a two-week trip that included a wedding) so that he could jack the car up.
On Day Two, my father was hell bent on Chicago. I don't know whether my father was familiar with the Irish battle cry faugh a ballagh - which means clear the way - but he was sure putting it into action on pedal-to-the-metal Day Two.
We had breakfast at the motel in Erie PA (or Ashtabula OH; one or the other on the way out, on the way back) where we stayed - a HoJo's or Holiday Inn, which I thought was incredibly elegant: those tiny wrapped Ivory soap bars - and then it was non-stop to Chicago. We took one break for bathroom and tank fill 'er up, where my father bought a couple of giant bottles of Pepsi and a ginormous bag of circus peanuts.
"Don't tell your mother," was the byword of the day. For the remainder of the trip, we gorged on circus peanuts. Admittedly, at the time, I enjoyed them. Today, the very thought makes my stomach roil. And circus peanuts have, of course, become an ongoing family joke.
Anyway, I refuse - make that REFUSE - to believe that circus peanuts were ever the favorite movie treat in Massachusetts, even way back in the wayback of 2019, the date of this travesty.
I'm much more inclined to accept the "results" of a 2022 survey, even though it's based on purchases at Cinemark Theaters. There are only two in Massachusetts, and they're in the western part of the state, so I'v never been to one. But, kid allergies aside, Peanut M&M's make a lot of sense.
And it's gratifying to see that the Cinemark list doesn't have any Smarties, Dum Dums, Laffy Taffy (banana or other), or Pixie Sticks on it, either.
Circus peanuts!!! NFW!!!
No Twizzlers?
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