The Bookless Club: What are your tales from ‘lost and found’?

I am still shaking my head over this one.

Jane Macdougall is a freelance writer and former National Post columnist who lives in Vancouver. She writes The Bookless Club every Saturday online and in The Vancouver Sun. For more of what Jane’s up to, check out her website, janemacdougall.com

Question: What are your tales from ‘lost and found’?

Send your answers by email text, not an attachment, in 100 words or less, along with your full name to Jane at thebooklessclub@gmail.com. We will print some next week in this space.

Question: Ahhh, the beloved candy dish. Any fond memories?

• As a child, my great grandfather (G.G.) lived with my grandparents. In the den where G.G. always sat, there was a candy bowl filled with Humbugs. He was a kind and gentle soul and all the grandchildren enjoyed sitting next to him, sucking on a Humbug. Sweet memories.

Colleen Giddings

• I, too, love a good candy dish, and have a beautiful two-tiered silver one in my office downtown. Helps get my colleagues to visit, where we talk about work and what’s going on in our lives. But I’m now more conscientious about the health risk to my friends from sugar, so my dish, mixed in with the candy, regularly has chewable Vitamin-C tablets and nuts, along with some Tums for calcium.

Mary Ainslie

• I spent a couple of decades in a tiny, close-knit village that had a post office. The postmaster maintained a candy dish with lemon drops at the wicket. So sweet. Until a new postmaster was curmudgeonly enough to ditch the dish. In revenge, folks reported every deficiency of his service. Reports of his dumping the Census forms instead of delivering them (because he didn’t believe in the Census) got him fired. But, alas, the candy dish was not restored.

Sheila Humphrey

• I feel fortunate to never have had a sweet tooth. As a kid, my siblings used to give me their lemon slices when the family went out for “Chish and Phips”. The only soda pop I ever drank was the less sweet-tasting Canada Dry ginger-ale. First time at the PNE, grandma bought us each a huge cotton candy. I hacked-up the first mouth-full of on its way down and never tried it again. Boomers today suffer a higher rate of diabetes and other comorbidities than previous generations because they were hooked on post-Second World War cheap salt, sugar, and fat. Nearly 12 million Canadians currently live with diabetes, a significant portion being Type-2.

R.L. Read

• Ah, the joys of childhood. Going to the corner store for blackballs or Humbugs, or if you had a few extra pennies, a licorice pipe. At home, my mother had candies out for all special occasions — valentine hearts, Easter treats, Halloween treats, and especially Christmas. Chicken bones and satin candies were our favourites. When I started working, I kept a jar on my desk with candy available to all staff. Following family tradition, I would put out seasonal treats for every holiday. At home, I keep candy jars and dip into the jelly beans occasionally, but they’re a bigger hit at parties. Amazing how adults will get into the sugar if it is out.

Claire Robertson

• My story is about a special candy dish that resided at my Nanny’s place. This dish was made of crystal with an acorn as the handle on the lid. I am the youngest of eight and never acquired the skill to lift the lid without making the “crystal chime”. It was a challenge that, I’m sure, was my Nanny’s intention. If we tried to get a candy and the crystal chimed, the rule was you were not allowed to have one. My Nanny could hear this sound from anywhere in the house (even the backyard). The only member of my family able to acquire said candy was my older brother, whose skill was unequalled. He was 11.