The strange and sweet history of the Candy Wrapper Museum

What can I say about the Candy Wrapper Museum? It is comprised of my personal collection of wrappers and candy ephemera, most of which was purchased from candy shelves at suburban Los Angeles mini-marts, grocery stores, and drug stores. I’ve expanded the collection to include wrappers dating back to the turn of the 20th century. Some of the collection came from the generous donations of people around the world who wanted their collections to go to a good home. The CWM has been featured on TV, radio, magazines, and newspaper; in a fine art exhibit, and honored in 2018-19 by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles for the societal significance of collections in its “21 Collections: Every Object Has a Story” exhibition.

People often ask, “What inspired you to do this?” The answer is in the story that follows.

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Darlene Lacey and her family in the 1960s.

It started innocently enough. Nuclear family from Southern California detonated in the late fifties.

My mom never cared much for sweets, but my dad had a sweet tooth. We would stock up on candy for road trips or sneak a sweet while running errands around town.

And despite Mom’s lack of interest, heck, this was the baby boom, there were plenty of sweets to go ‘round. I remember classic candy such as Bit-O-Honey, Sugar Babies, and Good 'n Plenty from the earliest days of my youth.

When we moved from West Covina to Diamond Bar in the late sixties, our new neighborhood had its own private club with swimming pool, tennis court, and snack bar. We would hang out all day and buy candy from the snack bar… red licorice laces, which were cheap, amusing, and tasty… and the Hollywood candy bars... Pay Day, Milk Shake, and Big Time... which you could buy frozen, making them doubly exotic and delicious.

My brothers and I weren't given allowances, so it was hard to go crazy buying candy. In fact, it really wasn't much of an issue until the first 7-11 came along. Diamond Bar was a small town back in the sixties, with only one little market for a long time, then eventually one supermarket.

When the 7-11 arrived, it seemed like utter overkill... Wow! A supermarket AND a mini-mart! The rack of candy at the 7-11 was full of tempting treats. There was the penny candy: wax lips, candy lipstick, Pixy Stix, Ice Cubes, candy baseballs, and footballs. There was fun gum: Black Jack, Gold Rocks, trading card gum ike Wacky Packages and Odd Rods. Then, there was everything else: candy cigarettes, peppermint patties, Good and Plenty, Necco, Tootsie Rolls, Abba-Zabas, Mars bars, M&Ms, Bit-O-Honey, etc. etc. etc. ...AND it was right down the street from the club.

This inspired me and my best friend Diana to walk down to the store and pick up a bagful of treats whenever and however we could. In retrospect, we ate way too much candy.

Teenage Darlene Lacey and best friend Diana - 1970s.

This is a photo of me doing my impression of "Dawn, Portrait of a Teenage Runaway" around the time I began the collection. For those youngsters out there, this is what a nerdy, bookish teenage girl looked like in the 70s. This was during my phase where I hated to wear shoes. My rebel attitude was always being corrected by my Grandma, showing how things should be done when she posed a moment later in the same spot.

Teenage Darlene Lacey and her grandmother - 1970s.

When Diana and I were maybe 15, we started to tag along after a crowd of guys who might be described as “a rough crowd.” We were total geek girls and they were cool, but we were determined to start having a teenage social scene, despite our relatively sheltered existence. The guys basically tolerated us and let us hang around sort of as mascots rather than girlfriends because we were still teen geeks. Eventually we did manage to become a little cooler, and after several years I decided to take the plunge and even get a boyfriend.

Darlene Lacey’s friends who inspired her to start the Candy Wrapper Museum.

These guys introduced me to all kinds of things that I still enjoy to this day: offbeat music, crazy old movies, sports, Thai food, and good beer. Some of them even collected imported beer bottles and displayed them in their homes, as was the counter-culture vogue back then.

Teenage Darlene Lacey on a desert adventure with her "rough crowd" of friends.

I thought the beer bottle collections were very cool. (Okay, I was an idiot.) I wanted a collection along those lines, but since I was too young to buy alcohol, I decided that I would start collecting unusual candy wrappers. But it wouldn’t be a mere “collection”: It would be the Candy Wrapper Museum, where wrappers are to be enjoyed as art, nostalgia, and humor.

My first purchases for the museum were Nice Mice and Cinnamon Teddy Bears. I chose them because I thought the art was amusing and because the candy had an ephemeral quality that made me pretty sure you wouldn't see them on the shelves for very long. And I was right. I wasn't a total idiot.

Nice Mice and Cinnamon Teddy Bears, the first candies collected for the Candy Wrapper Museum.

From that point on, these two elements were my basic criteria for adding items to the museum. I started to semi-jokingly brag about how I would someday transform my collection into a roadside attraction in the god-forsaken desert and draw fame as a kooky old woman. I drew my inspiration from places like a little cafe and mini-mart in Death Valley that featured "rocks from famous places." Soon, friends started chipping in items as well. The museum began to take off.

A questionable “Rocks from Famous Places” roadside attraction that inspired the Candy Wrapper Museum.

Over the decades, I gravitated toward a more "sophisticated" crowd and lost touch with much of the old crowd until fairly recently, thanks to the internet. Despite all the changes between the 1970s and now, one constant was that I continued to collect wrappers and file them away. In 2003, I decided to inspect what I had gathered to see if they had "matured" enough to make them worth displaying. Sure enough, they had.

College age Darlene Lacey (on right) with friends at a Halloween party.

So instead of waiting until I became a kooky old woman living in the desert (not there quite yet), I launched the Candy Wrapper Museum into cyberspace, an even bigger god-forsaken desert than I had could have ever envisioned in my youth. In fact, this my website even brought me together with Joe Lacey, the love of my life, who lived so far away in PA (and is now happily united with me in CA). He came in search of Nice Mice, and discovered me at the same time!

Darlene Lacey and her husband Joe at the 7-11 where she bought the candy that brought them together.

 I hope you enjoy the CWM. If you're hot and tired and need a nonsense refreshment break, come check it out.

 P.S. I extend an apology to all my friends portrayed here in the most unflattering context that I could find!