This past weekend I went to the Wakarusa Dime Store and discovered a magical land where all of your favorite 90s candy is always in stock and happiness shines over the entire place like a beautiful rainbow.
I had been alerted to this store last week because of the unique activity that it houses in the second floor: a life size version of the children's board game "Candyland."
You purchase a ticket to play the game and are then escorted upstairs where the real competition begins.
Each player is given a deck of "Candyland" cards and then the race towards the finish line gets heated.
The most unfortunate part of the game is that there is no Queen Frostine, but it's a quaint funny activity for a lazy Saturday afternoon.
Admittedly the playing space is littered with mannequins dressed in candy themed attire that are a little off putting if you're not in a large group, but it would be a great place to go with a huge group of girls.
Once you're finished with the game you are handed a nifty little gift bag of free candy that includes everything from candy cigarettes, jolly ranchers and gummy worms to candy necklaces and bazooka gum.
The journey doesn't end there though.
Once you return downstairs you're free to explore three rooms of all the best candy you can imagine.
They had old school candy from the 50s next to homemade candy exclusive to the store.
If you remember the film "13 Going on 30" you might remember a candy called "Razzles" making an appearance.
Well this place has those...in three different varieties.
The store had Warheads by the dozen for 25 cents a piece.
It had a ton of different flavors of saltwater taffy in old fashioned barrels and it couldn't have been more charming.
They also had a section full homemade fudge and chocolates.
In keeping with the old fashioned theme of the place they had old school Coca Cola, Root beer and Crush bottles.
All in all, the place provided not only an incredible opportunity to have some good, stupid fun but an excuse to eat all the candy you can possibly imagine also.
The best part is it's not far from campus at all.
Just a ten minute drive away from Notre Dame.
I had seen the store before but never really understood what it was.
Now I can confidently suggest to anyone who needs to find a fun afternoon activity that they check out the adorable Wakarusa Dime Store.
Contact Courtney Cox at
ccox3@nd.edu
