It sure felt like Candyland. We went to a candy store this weekend to search for items to use for our gingerbread houses. We found the coolest candy store I have ever been to. It reminds me of a store I used to go to called Yummers, which had all kinds of old fashioned types of candy that the big chains no longer carried. This store was like that, but they also had old toys from the past.

It’s a hardware store too, what a perfect combination, everyone can enjoy it. When we went to the 5 and dime store all the husbands were sitting out on the benches out front waiting while their wives were inside Christmas shopping. I didn’t take a cute photo of it because some of the husbands looked a little grumpy. One even said to my husband….

“How long have you been waiting?”

My husband replied back that I had just popped in for a couple of gifts to mail to friends.

“I’ve been waiting two hours so far” the farmer said

” I don’t think my wife will be in there that long, she’s not a fan of crowds”

The farmer just smirked, probably not believing that I would be out so soon. He then went on to tell my husband a story about how awful his grand kids were, how they treated his wife, they didn’t deserve her kindness and every year she keeps trying to buy it. Went on to tell my husband how he was going to sell the farm and get a place by the beach, in the Caribbeann somewhere.

“They can’t wait to inherit the farm to sell it off, they don’t know I’m selling it first” He said a little angry.

He was probably getting a little salty from the long wait. He was tired of how they treated his wife, their mother, their grandma, just waiting for big hand outs.

My husband was right when he said I wouldn’t be in there long, we both worked retail for years, it’s where we met back when we were teens, at the mall. A retail Christmas is no fun. My favorite part of retail was when I was promoted to buyer, traveling to LA shows to buy merchandise for the shop.

That was both scary and fun. The scary part was not knowing if what I bought was going to be a popular seller. With thousands of dollars from someone else’s pocket to spend, you don’t want it to be a failure.

The owners would give me their check book/credit and send me off into those huge convention centers to find products for their store.

Retail at Christmas time is no fun, people get intense and angry the closer that day comes…and that is so sad. Anyway, the other husband didn’t believe my husband when he said I would be in and out.But my husband knew that just like him…I am not a fan of crowds .

I popped out 15 minutes later….

“I got what I wanted” I said to my husband and he turned around to the old farmer sitting next to him….

“See you out there sometime” he said smiling

That is something my husband says to all strangers he first meets.

The farmer looked back even grumpier than before and as my husband and I walked away together I asked what that was all about.

“That poor guy has been sitting there for two hours” my husband said

“What?”

Then I explained to my husband how crazy crowded it was inside the store, it was too much. I understand why the wife was in there a long time.

I usually don’t shop in season. I was happy to get out. Everyone was nice though, everyone was polite and kind to each other. All the registers were open, it’s just there is so much stuff to look at, like a museum of nostalgia. People were having fun looking at everything and wondering if so and so would like this or that as a gift. Branson, Missouri is a Christian town, everyone is pretty much very kind and polite to one another.

Now here I was at a new store that I had never been too, in Arkansas. At the candy store, all ages, all sexes, all personalities…everyone can enjoy it. The perfect type of store. No one was sitting outside on benches.

I picked up some small gifts. I have four little boys I was buying for. I had already bought some puzzles and books for them and decided to add some of those little hot wheel cars to the gift.

They have toys that I remember as a kid, like these baby bottles. I had one for my baby doll when I was a little girl. The milk disappears when you move it up and down while feeding your baby. That was one of my favorite toys from the past.

They also had sea monkeys, does anyone remember those? I never got my sea monkeys to come about, maybe I had a bad package, I also had issues with my ant farm. I didn’t see an art farm at this store though.

They had paper dolls. I remember using the Sears catalog to make paper dolls with, that was fun. I think they stopped making the catalogs in the 90’s.

I carried these cat clocks in the shop I was a buyer for, they were reproductions of course. They were a popular item back in the 90’s.

There was candy in this store from other countries too. Countries like England, Sweden, and Japan.

My son picked out some sodas to try, they had a nice variety of flavors that I had never seen before.

Remember when I went to that Gingerbread display and saw candy rocks on one of the Gingerbread houses?…well, I was determined to find some of those little candy rocks for our Gingerbread house and I found them here.

The candy store had multiple rooms to explore, The owners designed it like Pirates of the Caribbean. I would later learn it was Harry Potter, not pirates. It felt like a pirate ship to me. I’ve never read Harry Potter books but I do remember how popular they were at the bookstore, people would call and wait in lines to get new releases when they came out.

Most of the nostalgic toys were in those rooms. They had music playing. I believe it was from the Harry Potter movies which I also have never watched. I have seen bits and pieces of it in trailers but I never watched the series, either have my kids. Their grandpa got the whole series for them, and my daughter tried to watch one but she didn’t really get into it. Also that vampire series, what was it called…with a bunch of teenage vampires and wolves. My kids never got into that either…now Star Wars…WOW…big Star Wars nerds, and I write that lovingly. We all love watching Star Wars.

They had a ton of stocking stuffers in this store. It was such a fun store to explore.

Remember paper Christmas decorations. As a kid we would draw and color our own to decorate our windows with.

And silly gifts like these giant rubber chickens. I thought they were a bit pricey though especially for something that doesn’t have much purpose to it…it’s not a game or anything you can actually play with. Just a giant rubber chicken.

They even had giant suckers too. How would you go about eating this thing. I remember the gold nugget gum. In Arizona that was everywhere.

Charlie Brown chocolate bars.

And ugly sweaters for your bottles.

It was just room after room, it just kept on going. I didn’t even get to the paint room. I need paint for the bedrooms, we haven’t started on that part yet at the historic home…too many projects. Happy Candyland adventures everyone. Stay safe out there and God Bless you all.