In my teenage years, I lived close enough to our high school to walk there and back. If I remember right, it took about 15 minutes each way. And about halfway between my house and the school there was a cross-street that boasted a pizza place, a green grocer, and a little stationery store we called "Bill's".
It had everything you'd expect. Greeting cards, school supplies, magazines, essentials for the home, knickknacks, and near the cash register in the front, the ever-present racks of candy and chewing gum.
Many of us were little balls of energy back then, fueled by the vigor of youth and topped off by sugary snacks that we certainly didn't need, but burned off quickly. And so whenever a bunch of us stopped by the stationery store during lunch or after school, it's likely that we picked up something from those candy racks. The treat of choice for me usually included chocolate in some way.
I remember a few standards: Nestle Crunch. 100 Grand. Mounds.
But in the early 1990s, coinciding perfectly with my burgeoning hockey fandom, a new option appeared on those candy racks:
THE MARIO BUN!
For the confectionery aficionados among us, this candy bar, created by the Clark company, was kind of like a big "turtle": a mound of caramel and pecans, all covered in
chocolate. (Just replace the pecans with roasted peanuts.)
I'm sure it was a tasty treat. But this is a trading card blog, so now I'll have to mention the real reason I ate a few of these things back then:
The
Mario Bun came with one of three collectible Mario Lemieux cards inside!
The cards measured 3" x 3". The bun sat atop the card in the package, and if I remember right, took up a decent amount of the space, which means it was quite a hefty snack.
Each of the three card fronts features a different image of Mr. Lemieux, along with a facsimile autograph and the very noticeable Bun logo. Card backs provide various details about Lemieux. The first card back, shown above, contains stats from his junior and NHL career.
The second card back lists honors and awards Lemieux had earned up to that point (1992-93). I find it interesting that his Conn Smythe trophies for playoff MVP in both 1991 and 1992 are mentioned, but not the corresponding Stanley Cup trophies.
Another honor not listed on the back of the card? Getting a candy bar named after you!
Looking
back at those Penguins teams, quite a few other players could have easily had candy bars named after them, too. There was Ron Francis, Kevin Stevens, Mark Recchi, Joe Mullen, Bryan
Trottier, Paul Coffey, Larry Murphy, and a budding young star named
Jaromir Jagr.
All of those guys aside from Stevens and Jagr are now in
the Hockey Hall of Fame, and Jagr will be one day. (If he ever stops
playing professionally, that is. He currently plays for Kladno in the Czech league, and owns the team as well!)
As
for Stevens, he was no slouch either, putting up 54 goals and 69
assists for 123 points in 1991-92, finishing second in team scoring to
Lemieux, who went 44 G, 87 A, 131 PTS.
Here's the final card, which offers a nice little paragraph that describes a little bit of Mr. Lemieux's magnificence. (Bryan Trottier and Bobby Orr were the other two players who'd won the Art Ross, Hart, Calder, and Conn Smythe trophies. Since then, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Patrick Kane have joined the list.)
All
three of the cards you've seen here are originals from my collection, which enhances the fun memories for me. I wonder how many of these candy bars I bought and ate before I completed the three-card set. Hopefully not too many.
Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!
100 Grand for sure. Snickers and Reece's Peanut Butter Cups too. Reggie, Griffey, and Gwynn are three baseball players that had candy bars back in the 80's and 90's. I actually recently picked up a new Gwynn related to the topic that I'll share on my blog one of these days.
ReplyDeleteI forgot about peanut butter cups. Good addition, Fuji. Looking forward to the related blog post!
DeleteNeat promos! The NBA had three promo sets with nestle crunch bars between 96 and 98. Let's just say I completed two of the 40 card sets and am 3 or 4 away from the third set.
ReplyDeleteCool info, thank you Billy. Until this past year or so, I didn't realize just how many food-issue sets are out there.
DeleteBack in the day, I bought two Mario Bun bars and ate the first one right away. finally broke down and opened the second one a year later. I got the second card that you show both times, which was disappointing. But the second bar tasted just as good a year later (I'm not sure if is should be worried about that, but here I am decades later...)
ReplyDeleteOh man, Derek. Your story made me laugh a little bit. Glad that second bar didn't affect you in a bad way! Let me know if you still need the other two cards in this set. I can keep an eye out for them.
DeleteI wasn't big on candy after about the age of 12, so I don't really have any memories of cards coming with candy. I did get quite of the cards that came with the King B shredded jerky, but obviously that's a bit outside of what your talking about here.
ReplyDeleteWell, some people would probably refer to King B shredded jerky as "meat candy", so I'd say we're fine including it here, don't you think?
Delete