When I was about six years old, my mother, sisters, and I moved from Aberdeen, Mississippi to Los Angeles, California. My dad stayed in the South, and the twins and I would visit him during the summer. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to northern Mississippi in July, but it is very hot, humid, and full of bugs.
We didn’t have a pool, but someone (either my dad or my grandmother) joined the country club so we could swim in theirs. I remember two things very clearly: That the shallow pool (for babies) had a large mural of Ariel from The Little Mermaid painted on the floor—is it still called a “mural” if it’s on the floor?—and I remember that the concession stand had frozen candy bars.
My standard concession stand order was a frozen Twix. I liked how it snapped. Instead of long strings of sticky caramel and crumbly cookies, freezing kept things neat and tidy—the bisected innards looked more geological than edible, and I appreciated the clean lines. Most importantly, however: The candy bar was cold, and eating anything that wasn’t cold while standing in the blazing hot Mississippi sun was very unpleasant.
I no longer live in the South, but it seems like everywhere gets unbearably hot now, at least for a few weeks out of the year. Stocking the freezer with ice cream and popsicles can help beat the heat, but few people stock their freezer with candy bars, and I think they should.
A frozen mini candy bar offers that bit of chilly respite on a sweltering day, but it’s not as big of a commitment as an ice cream sandwich, for example. I would probably feel ill if I ate an ice cream sandwich every time I became uncomfortably sweaty, but a frozen mini candy bar satisfies the chilly treat cravings that pop up multiple times a day, without making me feel like shit.
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I don’t have children, but I expect that they would also enjoy frozen mini candy bars, especially after a few hours of splashing around in a pool, or perhaps as a reward for completing a summertime chore.
Because of their small size, there’s no reason not to keep a stash of mini candy bars in your freezer. Buy a variety bag from your favorite candy supplier, toss that bag in the freezer (or put it in a plastic container for the sake of neatness), then eat them as the need arises. I recommend getting a bag with Twix. I still like the way it snaps.
