Canada Wintergreen Mints

At the end of WW II I when I was about 7 or 8 years old I, along with my older brothers, would arise every morning at 6 o’clock, groggily dress, and head to the barn to tend the cattle after their long night alone.  On a dairy farm the cattle are always the first order of the day.  Human needs are taken care of after that.  We would work in the barn for an hour or more before we got to eat our own breakfast, change clothes, and walk the mile to school in fall, winter, and spring.

By this time in history my mother had developed a keen taste for the round pink wintergreen candies that had the word CANADA stamped upon their face.  Although we were a large family that didn’t lack for food (which included candy) under any circumstances, mom’s metal can with the tight fitting cover held her private stock of the wintergreens and we children were not supposed to touch them.

This meant, of course, that it was merely a challenge to locate her latest hiding spot, and see how many we could pilfer without her knowing, or at least not saying anything about it.  Often that was the first thing to do in the morning.  We all slept upstairs in our two-story home.  After arising we trudged down the stairs supposedly to head for the barn.  However from time to time some of us would start a search for mom’s candy stash.

Sometimes it would be high on a pantry shelf.  Other times high on a shelf in the big cabinet in the living room.  We boys would boost one another up to search these higher places.  Inside the washing machine was another prize location.  Once located each of us would take two and head for the barn.  They had to be eaten very soon so that the pink residue on our tongues would at least mostly go away during the hour or so we were completing our morning chores.

I never asked her in later years, but she must have known we enjoyed the little game of hide and seek nearly as much as she did, and it wouldn’t have been near so enjoyable if they had been in a dish in plain sight.

These candies were first made in Canada in the late 1800s, and brought into the United States in the early 1900s, about the same time my mother was born.  I still enjoy them some 70 years after I first tasted them.