I’m Gen-X and the Disappearance of My Candy at the Checkout Stand is a Reminder of My Own Mortality
Should I Pitch This?
Dear Friend,
I like to: write stuff.
I have a lot of resistance/terror around: all the “pick me” stuff that goes along with writing, like querying, pitching, packaging, refining my “take,” choosing a catchy title, figuring out who works where, finding their email address and pressing “send” on my email.
To battle this resistance I’m devoting 2025 to a kind of exposure therapy where one post each month will be a “Should I Pitch This” episode. Instead of writing about a thing, I’ll share my attempt to write a pitch to write about the thing. I’ll tell you what markets I’m planning to approach, and I’ll occasionally update you on what kind of responses I receive.
If you ever have advice or thoughts (even if they’re a little critical) you are welcome to leave a public comment since that might help not only me, but other aspiring writers who might be read this, now or in the future.
Here’s my first pitch. I’m planning to pitch it to The Girlfriend, which is a newsletter targeted at Gen X women. Their lifestyle articles tend to be in the first-person, so I’ve I’ve added in a few first person sentences.
Where Have All the Red Hots Gone?
In the first episode of the new television reboot of Matlock, Kathy Bates’ intrepid Maddie Matlock procures key information for a legal case by disguising herself as a slightly doddering grandmotherly type. The key element of her disguise? A pocketful of cellophane wrapped butterscotch candies.
If butterscotch is associated with the Silent Generation and older Boomers, then my nomination for the signature flavor of Generation X is cinnamon. The register-adjacent candy rack of my childhood offered a cornucopia of options that left my tongue tingling and lips swollen: Cinnamon toothpicks, Hot Tamales, Atomic Fireballs and Big Red gum. Growing older, I graduated to more “adult” fare like Cinnamon Tic-Tacs and Dentyne.
And, of course, Red Hots. I’d always assumed these red pearls would be perennial, since they are necessary to adorn pink frosted cakes on Valentines Day, represent holly on our green Cornflake Christmas wreaths. But with each passing year, they, along with other cinnamon items are disappearing from view.
Where are these former cinnamon celebrities now? Do they still exist, and where can they be found? These are the tongue-burning question I’ll research and answer for a number of items, starting with Harmon’s Fire-Pix, the cinnamon-soaked wood toothpicks that my friends and I gnawed down to the wood pulp. These were hand-soaked, dried and packaged in McCook, Nebraska until Bud and Betty Harmon sold their family-owned business in 1993. They are no more, You can find similar items through nostalgia candy outlets and on Amazon—though some reviewers note that they “aren’t the same” as when they were kids!
A little about me: I’m from the Midwest, currently living in Los Angeles. As a life-long cinnamon addict, I’ve been watching attentively as my options have dwindled
Thanks!
Barrington
I’m not sold on my title, “Where Have All the Red Hot’s Gone?” It’s snappy and referential, but not personal or immediately recognizable. Since I am proposing a list, I could opt for a “5 Cinnamon Candies You Won’t Find at the Checkout Stand.” But…not good, right?
And it also brings up the question of “angle.” Is a list the way to go, or should I have opted for a personal journey angle? How when I offer my younger friends a piece of cinnamon Trident, they look at me in the same amused way the characters look at Maddie Matlock—like I’m sweet and a little clueless that my time has passed? Is it time for me to accept that cinnamon has joined the ranks of butterscotch and weird violet candies, and what does this say about me?
This type of rumination, my friend, is what has made me a person who writes letters instead of pitches. Hit me with your thoughts on what you’d prefer to read!
But in any event, this pitch goes out by Wednesday of next week!
Thanks for joining me on this journey,
B
For sure pitch it! I could also see it being a Food Network or History channel episode. When I was in the process of quitting smoking in 2006 the worst part was not having a cigarette in my hand while I was driving. A tip that was given to me that I ended up relying on was both Tea Tree oil and cinnamon flavored toothpicks. Sometimes the urge was so strong that I would just chomp down on the toothpicks. So much so that I would end up with little shards in my mouth that I would have to either spit or carefully pinch out of my mouth and throw out.
Later, I became an "evangelist" for the toothpicks and I have sent them off to several people from different states when I found out that they were trying to quit.
Good memories! I want those wreaths now!
This cinnamon candy tale took me down Memory Lane. My dad was all about Dentyne, chewed it with gusto, with his front teeth, no less. I could only manage those pink slabs once my tongue stopped tingling. But I couldn't handle Red Hots. The first (and last) time I ate a whole box, my lips swelled to duck-beak proportions. This was during my Boomer childhood, so who knows what chemicals were in them back then. And yes, you should pitch this!