The Birth of my OCD (Obsessive Candy Disorder)

I think today's the day-- the day I reveal what is probably my first, and most significant candy memory. I truly believe that this was the start of my passion (obsession?) with candy.
When I wrote about the popovers, the Ice Cube Queen wrote back saying that yes, we did make popovers. We made them with the LaVallas, our neighbors, and stuck fortunes in them. I have no memory of that, but her mention of the LaVallas spurred a flashback to this important moment in Candy Yum Yum history. Here we go:

I am little. Maybe four, five, six? Next door to us live the LaVallas: Fran, Big Frank, Frankie, Sharon and Louise (Weezie). Sharon and Betsy are best friends. Weezie, although much older, is very fun and likes to play with me. Frankie and my brothers like to play football and light the swamp on fire. Fran makes a kick-ass pasta fagioli that I can't stop eating. Big Frank screams a lot. They are a quintessential presence in my young life. And then the news: they are moving to Florida to open a Carvel. I'm devastated, although I like the idea of going to visit them for ice cream.
I decide I need to get Sharon a going away present. (Why Sharon? I don't know. Perhaps it was the empathy I was feeling for Betsy.) I somehow craft a little bag out of fabric and I declare that I'm going to fill it with candy that I buy at 7-11. I empty out my piggy bank and get my sisters to take me to the store.
Now, they say smell is one of our strongest memory triggers. Verily, I say onto thee, there is no more powerful smell in my memory than the aroma of 7-11. It's impossible to describe, of course, but it's a thick, syrupy scent of fake butter, sugar and ice. I love that smell in its complete uniqueness.
I went to the candy aisle where they had a nice assortment of penny candy in wire baskets. Was it really a penny then? I think it was. I composed a nice mix of root beer barrels, Bazooka, mini Reese's and fireballs and paid for it with my hard-earned pennies.
When we exited the 7-11, the Ice Cube Queen said to me, "I bet you're going to eat all that candy yourself."
Pop! Something happened. I was being doubted and challenged. A bet you say? I'll wager a Mary Jane that I don't eat the candy.
The fact of the matter was that I think I probably would've eaten the candy had the gauntlet not been laid down, but there it was. So I trotted home and stuffed the candy into the little bag and the next morning, handed it over to Sharon as they loaded up the car. It was perhaps the biggest sacrifice I have ever made. And I'm better for it.