There was however, one machine with the most delicious looking taffy, but it had a warning label that said: Beware of this treat for it will take yo places you’ve never been.

I remember the shopkeeper; she looked like a cross between a hippie and a gypsy—after all it was 1967, the “Summer of Love.” I was only twelve at the time but I had heard of LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs, and given the appearance of the shopkeeper, I had my suspicions. One day after school, my friends and I stopped in as usual for a treat on our way home. The temptation of the warning was too great so we dared each other to drop in a quarter. I let them get the best of me and I took the dare.

The taste was most exquisite, more than anything I had ever tasted. As it melted away into the gooey center, it was as if I was in a kaleidoscope. The warning was correct as I found myself in a world nothing seemed real, like a cartoon with all sorts of weird characters doing strange things. It was both exciting and frightening.

When I awoke the next morning in my own bed I had no recollection as to how I got there. Needless to say, I never set foot in the candy shoppe again.