Monday, January 1, 2007

Je Me Souviens du Dep - Long ago and far away....


This picture reminded me of highschool, circa 1987. Back then I was not yet aware of how lacking in super cool style I really was, my feather hair not quite a look I should ever replicate again and my love of candy was an intense affair. I went to school on the picturesque Staint Kevin Street, parallel to Rue Victoria, home of the famous Montreal pizza bagel, the shady Greek diner, the Vietnamese Restaurant we were too scared to enter and most importantly in my memory birthplace of the competing 7Up and Pepsi Deps or Depanneurs (or for you New Yorker types, The Deli).



The dep was the place to blow that hard earned allowance or to spend those 34 cents collected from inside the couch or the floor of your dad's rusted Plymouth Reliant that he insisted was a 'terrific car'. At the dep, one little penny could buy you a Swedish Berry or a lone Sour Patch Kid. If you had a nickle, you could splurge on a real life sized Hot Lips or big Swedish Fish. They later came out with the Tropical Fish; sour gummi with 2 flavors in one! My candy accomplice Amy and I would splurge on the Tattoo Gum which for whatever reason was enticing and exotic (probably duing to the sacrilege of the real deal...)

I remember the mini brown paper bag by the cashier, excitedly filled with 1 cent candy by a 4 foot 7th grader at lunchtime... Those little mini bags would be clutched tightly under your desk, throughout the long, boring school day, with each passing minute, you would check to see what gummi treats were left at the bottom. Just one more period left, and it's Talmud with Ben, so really it's like school is over....