Random Thoughts

These are just a few of the increasing number of Random thoughts that I have

Away Messages

Bubble gum                                                                                  tooth paste                                                                                                                   Llamas                                                                                                                           Crabs

Writings or the stories that will never come

Writings or the ideas that were finished

Religious Candy

Candy is really fun. It delights our tongue and our heart, but has no nutritional value

There's only one commandment that stands out above the rest that's to love the lord with all your heart. (Mark        ) To me if you do this, the rest will follow.

To be truthful, I haven't prepared anything for you to hear tonight.  I spent two whole weeks thinking about what to talk about.  I thought a good sermon on sin would be nice, especially if it were to be littered with some hell, fire and of course damnation, but I realized we all this stuff and it would be redundant to repeat too much. I think a thousand times is more than enough.  I thought nice pleasant lesson on grace would be wonderful.  You can never have enough grace, but life does not always seem gracious.  So to waste a good twenty or thirty minutes of your time, I am going to tell you about a wonderful little candy store I found in my travels throughout this country.

            I know it seems odd to talk about a candy store at church.  I will readily admit that overly sweet and bitter things don't make good topics for sermons or do they, but anyway, this place just interested me and I thought you all might enjoy hearing about it.  So just sit tight and forget about your normal way of doing things and let me do what I came here to do. You never know what you might learn.

            I can't remember where I was exactly when I found this store.  It could have been in New York, DC or maybe even Chicago where I stumbled across this quaint little place, but I do remember that it seemed so strange to me to see a candy store in the middle of such a large city, especially one that sold such odd candy. I always thought that city folk didn't have the time or the patience to enjoy truly good candy, boy was I wrong.  They like just a much as we.  It might look a little different than our candy or even have a different name, but it is still pretty much the same.  I even found out that their candy and ours has the same ingredients in it.

I spent several days in this store just wandering and rooming the shelves looking at everything that they had to offer one like me, but what really interested me was how this candy store came into existence.  As it turned out, years ago a man by the name of Peter Santa decide to start a business selling this unusual type of candy, I use the word candy loosely for what he sold but I will explain later, that a poor carpenter had taught him how to make. He and about eleven or so of his friends decided to setup this new business kind of like a franchise.  All these entrepreneurs began to setup little candy stores all over the place.  I think there were seven in to begin.  Then this guy name Paul Tent.  He uses to be apart of a rival candy chain but he was won over by the superior nature of the candy.  By this time, the original seven were being a little clumsy with their funds so Paul wrote a few memos to shape things up.  Also Paul helped found new stores all over the place.  After this, the new franchise went through some hard times.  Their competitors were ruthless.  We talk about hostile take-overs being bad, but what those other candy stores did was just ruthless. 

            After a turbulent beginning the candy chain settled into a normal routine.  They began finding new customers all through out the world. They even had great kings eating out of their hands; one of them was named Ethlebert I think.

            In the beginning there was only one type of store, all of which were headed by Mr. John Pope, he lead the company after Paul and Peter permanently retired. But, not everyone agreed with Mr. Pope on how the store should be run.  Some said that eating candy should be done individually while others said that it should be directed by the storeowner and his workers because of the special nature of the candy.  So the big candy store corporation split down the middle. Some storeowners side with Mr. Pope and called themselves the Cat Candy Stores.  The rest of the storeowners decided to form their own groups in protest of Mr. Pope's control over the way people eat candy.  There is no one unified group but many separate groups that like for people to eat their own candy however they want to. A Mr. Smith and a Mr. Russell started up two of the more radical groups, both of which decided to forsake the original recipe and make their own.  A lot of people like their recipe, but I thought it was quite unbearable.

Except for the two oddball groups, the all of the individual candy stores serve pretty much the same stuff really.  The stores have different names and they call their candy differently, but the ingredients are pretty much uniform.  Their workers are a bit different.  Some stand behind the counter and talk at you and the rest of the people in the crowd and some even come out into the store and talk too you personally, but these two types of workers can be found in all stores of all types.  They even have funny names for them too.  Some are called Ministers others Priest.  Some are Reverend or Pastor.  A few even call the workers brother.   There are even a few workers who like their job so much that they live in the store.

            It really is kind of hard to describe the candy they sold. It was like all others.  They mostly sold sweet varieties but there always arises the need to sell some bitter ones as well.  Any kind of pleasure that you wanted they had it.  It pretty much all was based upon one recipe that had been altered over the years.  The original candy was a sort sweet, sort of sour taffy that took quite a log time to eat, but neither taste, bitter or sweet, was that mild.  It was like you got a super shot of sweet flavor and a high dose of bitter, but the bitter taste lasted only a little while.  The sweet flavor was always present though it was hard to tell sometimes because the bitter taste was so strong.  No one buys this candy that much.  I guess it is too hard to take. It really was the prefect candy.  There was no need to add to it or take away from it.

            Most people prefer the store's other varieties.  Usually, these are either all sweet or all bitter.  Too me they are a much poorer quality than "the Original Recipe." I remember one called Old Time Service.  This one was a little too sappy for me.  It was way too formal tasting and didn't give any when you bit it.  It had the texture of a leather glove and the taste of over sugared Ice tea. I think it is time they retire that brand.  Another one, I tired was Self-righteousness Gumdrops.  Those tasted really good but they left a bad taste in my mouth.  It had a superior taste but really seemed to only please part of my palate.  Another funny variety was Dogma Double Dip.  This one reminded me of the original, but only on certain flavors that I could taste over and over and over again.  It was quite boring and redundant. Some more that were sweet are Heath Bar Hatred and Pew Placement Pistachio.  All the sweet ones only seemed to nourish my indulgence for sugar and self.  They did nothing for my other needs. 

I remember only one bitter variety. Ugh, it was horrible.  My whole body was contorting as I ate it. It tasted like a cross between cough syrup and gasoline.  I felt like I was punishing my body. Why would anyone do that to himself or herself?  Oh yeah it was call Flagellates Folly.  Curious name isn’t it?

            The way people ate the candy was ten times more interesting than some of the varieties they sold. Some people would run into the store as soon as the store opens and stay there until it closes.  The whole time they are eating up as much candy as they could.  Others come in and ate some candy quickly causing them a great sugar rush.  While "high" they dance around the store singing and shouting, but ultimately they fell from their height and slump out of the store in an irritable state. Some acquire a high then went out into the world and try to spread joy, but they too lose their fanaticism for the candy.  There are even a few people who never leave their “high” state.  These people just end up annoying the fire out of everyone.  There are even a few people who keep a constant supply of candy with them at all times. They make sure that their sweet tooth is pleased all the time. Have even seen people take up a piece of candy and dance around the store and make all kinds of noise, but they quickly leave and throw away their candy away without even taking a bite.  Some people just walk in and look around and leave, but usually these people are just scared off by the dancers or those on a sugar high.  There are a few patrons you are extremely sour. These people hate for any other to have fun while at the store. They like the store to be quiet and reverent, but it really doesn't matter how you like the store to be as long as you eat the right candy.  Or at least that is my opinion. But then what is the right candy?  To me the original is the best and I think people should just stick with that one.

                        One more think about this candy store if you ever want to go to one of these stores all you have look on any corner of any town in any country you can find one.  They might have the word candy in their name but you will know them when you see them.  I forgot to tell you what this kind of candy is called.  It is called religious candy.