Valentine's Candy at Bobb Howard's General Store

This Valentine's Day, as I was thinking about what to get my loved ones, I thought why not get them the candy that they loved during their childhood.

My husband was born in 1943. That means when he was a kid in the late 1940s he was running to the candy store to get Almond Joy, Dots, Bazooka Bubble Gum, Junior Mints and candy cigarettes. In fact, the candy cigarettes got him into trouble when a neighbor saw him “smoking” and reported him to his parents.

My daughter was born in 1967, so her candies were Bubble Yum, Hubba Bubba, Pop Rocks, Skittles, Smarties, Twix, some holdovers from the earlier decade – Starbursts and Now & Laters and, that perennial favorite from the 1930s, 3 Musketeers.

These kind of sweets are available at where they like to say they sell “old” candy. The small shop is packed with candies from all decades and old-time toys and it is a beacon for candy lovers from all over Nassau and Queens. One wall holds 180 jars of all kinds of retro and current candies and the rest of the 360 different kinds of candies are found on the crowded counter and throughout the store. Numerous retro toys are packed into the store — Howdy Doody and Bozo puppets, kazoos, wooden tops and Duncan yo-yos, to name just a few.

“There really is something here for children of all ages,” says owner and founder Eileen Caplin Wysel. “It’s fun for us to see grandparents bring in their grandchildren and see their eyes light up. Not to mention they leave with bags of candies."

The store, which was a convenience shop attached to the family-owned gasoline station, was turned by Eileen Caplin Wysel and her husband Ronnie into a candy store in 1993. The couple tries to keep the store stocked with every type of candy manufactured in the U.S. In the unlikely event that they don’t have a customer’s request, “We’ll launch a nation-wide search to find it,” Eileen Caplin Wysel says.

They take customer satisfaction very seriously and for years they’ve had to requests for certain candies, such as Delfa Rolls (a thin red licorice also known as Danish Ribbons) with “Sorry, they’re no longer being manufactured.” But recently there’s been good news about some of the candies—Delfa Rolls are back as well as Bonomo Turkish Taffy and they have them in good supply at the store. Also coming back are Astro Pops and Pine Brothers cough drops.  The Wysels recently received word that B B Bats have been discontinued, but, for the time being, they have lots in stock. On the endangered list is Chocolate Babies.

Candies come and go and some have been with us for nearly a century or more such as Good & Plenty, Hershey Kisses, Necco Wafers and Tootsie Rolls.