A random act of candy

There’s a pizza place by my church that sells a slice and a soda for $5. It’s the kind of combo that sounds like an everyday good deal, until you see the slice — and then it looks like an awesome deal.

Each one is about a quarter of a full pizza and comes loaded with heavenly cheese and chunks of meat the size of mountains. The slice could feed two people each easy, and three in a pinch. Plus, seeing as how it’s pizza, it’s obviously delicious.

I was recently blessed with a chance to witness a little boy’s first experience with just such a slice. Upon plopping it down on the table, his eyes got as big as golf balls, and he started to pull the cheese off, lifting his hands as high as possible to be sure to grab it all.

But, just as he did this, a man sitting next to him (I’m assuming his dad) noticed that the boy was disfiguring the pizza and snapped at him. Not in a crazy abusive way, but more of a “long-day, tired and stressed” kind of way. It was the type of snapping that can happen to any parent, any time with just the right amount of sleep deprivation.

The boy sat there stunned. He stopped eating, and had a look on his face that seemed to say, “I really want to cry right now.”

It’s one of those times when anyone witnessing the event would want to jump in and make everyone happy. But it’s also one of those times when anyone witnessing the event would do their best to stay out of the way. I had this nagging feeling that I should intervene though, and I couldn’t shake it.  

And then, I had a sugary idea. In my trunk was a cardboard box full of delicious Bazooka Juicy Drop Taffy that I’d recently received as samples. The candy comes as a bag of individually wrapped taffy squares and a sour gel pen that allows you to add as much sour as you’d like. It’s the kind of candy you can’t help but have fun eating.

So, I ran out to my car and grabbed a case of it. Then, to avoid the appearance of singling the family out, I started passing them out to everyone in the pizzeria.

“Hi! I know this is going to sound really random, but I work for Candy Industry magazine and I have some extra samples and I was wondering if you’d like to try this?” I said to each table, working my way to the family.

And the crazy part wasn’t that when I finally got to the dad, he smiled, and excitedly accepted a pack for himself and allowed his two boys to pick out one each as well. No, the crazy part was that every single person in the restaurant, including the employees, seemed thrilled when I offered the treat and took the sample, no questions asked.

I’m not going to lie, it kind of worries me that even after all the public service announcements, people were that willing to literally take candy from a stranger.

But as I left the restaurant, I knew I’d been fortunate to have samples in the car, and to pass out smiles to everyone in there — and there’s no sweeter feeling than that.