I stopped by to get a "get well" card for a family member, who is in the hospital right now. We, as in my brother and I, were going to visit, and I wanted to take something at least. So we went to get a card, the least we could do for a man who watched over us a lot when we were bratty kids growing up.
And then I saw them. Brach's butterscotch. I hadn't seen them in years. There have been other brands of butterscotch for sale, but never the Brach's. Needless to say, I bought some. Because Brach's butterscotch candies are special.
They have a fuller, more buttery taste than a lot of the other brands. And the butter flavor tastes more natural than the cheaper brands as well - like real butter, instead of whatever flavor chemical combination the chemists concocted in the lab to approximate the flavor of butterscotch. It's a flavor full of nostalgia, and memories. And a few tears.
Because butterscotch was always Grandpa's thing.
He always - always! - had some Brach's butterscotch candies hidden away in his room. Whenever we'd go visit, when Grandma wasn't looking, he'd wave me over and sneak a couple to me, grinning mischievously as he'd tell me not to tell Grandma. He showed me where they were hidden, and told me to always only take a few, and always leave some for him.
I always did.
Grandpa always had a sweet tooth. When he was still a gardener, he would always get boxes and boxes of See's chocolates every Christmas, and he'd always share with everyone. We'd save the cherry-filled and marshmallow-caramel ones for him, because they were his favorite. And he always had ice cream in the freezer - popsicles, push-ups, orange creamsicles, drumsticks, those Mexican-brand fruit popsicles with the real bits of fruit in them, rainbow sherbert from Baskin-Robbins.
Thanksgiving time meant a lot of things, but it most especially meant pumpkin pie. And Grandpa did love his pumpkin pie. He liked any fruit pie, really. But pumpkin pie was once a year, and special.
Grandpa always had hard candies on him, even when he went out. At the grocery store, everyone knew him as "the ojiichan with the candy," because he'd hand them out to everyone he came across. Because everyone deserved a smile, and how can you not smile when you get candy?
I always smiled. I still do.
He had all sorts of different hard candies. Japanese ones mostly, ranging from minty flavors, to honey-lemon, even some ume (pickled plum) ones. But one candy he didn't have was butterscotch. Because he said the Brach's butterscotch was the best, but we couldn't find them anywhere. And the other brands just weren't as good.
I can't believe he's been gone almost a year now.
Today, I found some Brach's butterscotch hard candies at the store. I bought them. I took them home. I slowly worked the wrapper off of one disk. As the buttery taste flooded my mouth, memories of grandpa came flooding back as well. And with tears in my eyes, I smiled.
I miss you, Grandpa.
