A Pack of Victories

Look up Candy Cigarette and you might well find this image, since it appears in a lot of places. Look up Victory Candy Cigarette you'll find the likes of this, which lists other candy cigarettes as well. Popeye has a brand too?

My Victory candy cigarette package doesn't actually say "cigarette" anywhere. It's simply Victory Candy. (Winston Smith's favorite -- the bestselling candy of Airstrip One!) The box is shaped like a cigarette pack, and the candies are long and white and cylindrical; otherwise there's no resemblance to tobacco products.

Lilly and I were out and about one evening last spring, and came across Victory and a couple of other brands at a gas station at some distance from home. She quizzed me about it, since it was a novelty to her, and in the end I bought a pack -- I mean, box -- of Victories for her. I remember buying candy cigarettes occasionally at the courthouse-square drug store in Denton, Texas, when I was very young, and I have yet to take up smoking, so I'm not particularly worried about candy cigarettes leading her astray.