Nerds

I was perusing a candy wrapper museum the other day ( http://www.candywrappermuseum.com ), and it got me thinking about some of the favored candies of my youth.  There was one particular favorite I had for years... the Nerd.  I first came across them sometime in the mid-80's, probably when I was 8 or 9, while I was in a convenience store with a friend's family.  I was immediately drawn to the funny, colorful little nerd characters on the box, as well as the gimmick of two different flavors poured from opposite sides of the box.  The most common flavor then (and now) was grape/strawberry.  Later on I found other flavors such as watermelon, lemon, lime, blueberry, raspberry, and citrus.  I became a nerds junkie.  I kept a ziplock bag full of them, all the flavors mixed up.. and not one of the little sandwich bags, but the sturdy, large size.  The nerd mixture was predominantly purple-pink, since grape/strawberry were the most common.  I'd sit in front of the tv with my nerds bag, dipping my fingers into the little pebbly candies and eating them by the handful, letting the hard shells dissolve into a mouthful of pure sugar... with a bag of tropical CapriSun to wash em down.  Probably not the healthiest snack, but there you go. 

I even saved up proofs of purchase and ordered a special promotional toy.  Eight weeks later (after daily mail-checking) it arrived: a purple plush Nerd doll!  That was a great doll.  Those were the days.  Nerds, Ewoks, Legos, CapriSun and ColecoVision.