C-A-N-D-Y

One of my earliest memories involves two things that interest me - spelling and candy. I must have been about 4 years old (I wasn't in school yet.) when one night one of my brothers said to my mom, "When K-i-t-t-y goes to b-e-d, why don't you make some f-u-d-g-e." I knew what he was spelling. I said, "No! I want to stay up if you're going to make fudge!" I remember my 2 brothers and Mother looking at me with their mouths open. Looking back, they must have said that quite often for me to know what they were spelling!
My mom never used a recipe. She knew how to make fudge from memory. When we lived in Detroit, Mom would give me some money and send me to the 'candy' store to buy peanuts for the fudge. Sometimes she made the suggestion and sometimes someone else would, but we had her home made fudge quite often. Back then it was also customary that if you needed a cup of sugar, you could call a neighbor and borrow it. My mom sent me down the street a number of times with her glass measure. One time she sent me to get some vanilla. I thought it smelled heavenly. It did not taste heavenly.
She never used a candy thermometer. She used the cold-water-in-the-cup method. She would boil the mixture for so long then drop just a tiny glob of fudge into the cold water. If the fudge dissolved, it wasn't even close. If it formed into a soft ball, it was getting closer. When the ball was firm, it was time to take it off the stove, stir the fudge and pour it into a pan. If the fudge turned into a hard ball instantly - it was too late. The fudge was like concrete and sometimes tasted like it was burned.
Memories of standing at my mom's side while she created marvelous tasting items stay with me and make me smile.