Grab bag Wednesday:the power of cosmic candy

The myth of Pop Rocks is imprinted upon an entire generation.  It was the killer candy.  Have some Pop Rocks and Coca Cola and wait for your stomach to explode.  The rumor states that it happened to Mikey from the Life Cereal commercial.  This is of course a lie.

I don't know what happened to Mikey, but he wasn't killed by Pop Rocks or Space Dust or Cosmic Candy.  People are stupid, we spent decades believing smoking cigarettes couldn't kill us and that a fizzy confection mixed with carbonated caffeine can explode your stomach.

I don't remember when it was called Space Dust, but Cosmic Candy reminds me of the innocence of my youth.  If you don't know about this Fizxy Miracle, check out the stuff I found.

SPACE DUST CANDY Everybody remembers Pop Rocks from the late 70s, but before I had ever heard of Pop Rocks we had Space Dust. That was the case where I lived anyway. Produced in 1978 by General Foods, I remember it being all the rage. Then suddenly it was gone and there was only Pop Rocks. Space Dust differed from Pop Rocks in that the candy was powdery, rather than the large chunks that Pop Rocks had. It gave you more of a nice continuous sizzle like a carbonated drink, rather than the sometimes painful pops of Pop Rocks. I always thought Pop Rocks were a cheap ripoff of Space Dust, which I prefered over Pop Rocks.

According to Doug Burns, who was involved with both products back in the 70s, "Pop Rocks came first, then Space Dust. Both originally owned by General Foods. Space Dust happened because Pop Rocks was made up of the top 25% (if I remember right) largest crystals when the product was made. Some smart dude decided to market the rest as Space Dust rather than throw it away as they had been doing. Space Dust became Cosmic Candy due to the Angel Dust scare. There were also articles back then in the Penthose letters about the products as a sex aid! (I have a copy of the ad, leave me a message requesting the ad if you really want it, I'm trying to keep the blog PG-13) We brought out a bubblegum product called Incredibubble that lasted for a brief time". Doug was the one responsible for coining the name "Cosmic Candy" to replace the name Space Dust. According to him, there was also a TV commercial produced that was never aired that featured the three "planet heads" eating Space Dust. Cosmic Candy never hurt anybody, and I'm sure that when it was called Space Dust, it never got anybody hooked on Angel Dust.  Kids don't think things like that.  All we wanted was some candy that fizzed and popped when you ate it.  All those other thoughts, including the ones in Letters to Penthouse, are thought up by adults who are bored, stupid, or paranoid. I'll admit that the packaging was pretty triply, but it was the 70's.  My nephew refers o the 1970s as one of the decades that nobody remembers.  They really happened it was just that most folks were too stoned to remember anything. I totally remember the 70s but those are the years when I was a kid.  Cosmic Candy was part of my kid hood.  It was there with cans of RC cola, Elton John, pinball wizard , pinball machines, and having nothing to do and not being bored about it. You see, if the rumors about Mikey and his exploding stomach were true, most of Generation X would have been killed off before there was a Nirvana.  Most of us would have been found in a park somewhere surrounded by empty packs of Cosmic Candy, aluminum, pull top, soda cans, and an AM radio playing Crocodile Rock over and over. See you next time You ant ell you, but I'm waving atchya.