Candy Poll

Last year when I was in California at the beginning of October, it struck me for the first time ever that all the fall decorations in the store windows were kind of incongruous. It was probably because I was coming from Michigan, but it seemed odd that they would celebrate leaf-changing, pumpkin-harvesting, corn-growing fall in Southern California. And in Texas (I had just spent a few days in Austin). And in Arizona and New Mexico and Florida and everywhere in the U.S. I guess even with so much diversity of climate, our country still has cultural roots reaching back north and east.

I'm not complaining. And while I really miss the Michigan fall, I will still celebrate the season as the Utah leaves turn kind of yellow. (Sorry. That's unfair to Utah, where fall really does rival Michigan if you get up into the mountains, and has the added advantage of, you know, mountains.)

Yesterday I celebrated fall by buying candy corn. I also remembered that I have no self-control when it comes to candy corn. Or candy pumpkins. Even when I reach the point where each new piece makes me feel slightly ill (which, you know, is after about three candy pumpkins or the equivalent amount of candy corn - these are intense little candies), I still keep coming back.

But candy corn is only a one-month-a-year treat for me. You can find candy corn in the supermarket year round if you want to, but I never feel the need to seek it out before October or after Halloween (although I'll still eat it up through Thanksgiving if it's sitting there in front of me).

Nor do I feel any affinity toward the repurposed versions that candy companies now put out at other holidays - Christmas corn and Easter corn, and even Valentine's Day corn. Not only does the strangely colored miscellaneous-holiday-corn taste wrong to me, the whole idea just feels wrong. Every holiday should only be allowed one questionable confection, and Valentine's Day already has candy hearts, and Easter already has Peeps. I would also argue that Christmas already has candy canes, but I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who agrees with me that this is indeed a questionable confection. Even though nobody likes starlight mints, and isn't a candy cane just a stretched-out starlight mint?

On a similar note, everyone should only be allowed to like one questionable confection, and candy corn is mine. I've found that people have strong feelings about the candy, so just for some non-introspective seasonal fun, I'm posting a poll to find out everyone else's opinion.

Happy fall! Even to you Texans and Californians.