Penny Candy & Other such treats

October 10, 2026

By Gina Smith

When I was a kid, we lived in a very small town in BC, and my brother and I walked to school by ourselves from my very first day of Grade 1.

We were good kids, I think. We went to school, did our chores, and earned a little pocket money. But every so often, we'd take a little detour to the corner store on our way to school to buy candy.

Penny candy.

Some of it was even two for a penny! We'd pick out those tiny sour candies that were so sour we'd make the biggest super-sour-face with every one. Then we'd head off to school with our tiny brown paper bags full of candy, tuck them away in our desks, and sneak pieces throughout the day.

Nowadays, pennies don't even exist anymore, and everything is so darned expensive.

What happened to the days when you could afford the little things? The fun things. The yummy things. The things that didn't have to cost a fortune to make you happy.

That's one of the reasons I take so much joy in our birthday party goodie bags at Retro Oasis.

I try to fill them with little pieces of nostalgia: Popeye candy sticks, Fizz candy, Fun Dip, Tootsie Pops and Pop Rocks. And if I could find individually wrapped sour keys, believe me, they'd be in there too!

I look for little toys like jelly bracelets, bouncy balls and the kinds of things we used to get in our goodie bags when we were kids.

They're small touches, but I hope they bring back memories of birthday parties past — and give parents and grandparents a chance to share a little bit of their childhood with the kids in their lives today.

That idea is actually part of the big idea of Retro Oasis.

From the beginning, we always said we wanted fun to be affordable.

A birthday party for your kids shouldn't have to be a major financial event. An afternoon playing arcade games shouldn't break the bank. And even our escape rooms, while naturally more expensive than spending some time in the arcade, cost up to 30% less per person than many escape rooms in the city.

We want families to be able to come here, play together, laugh together, and make memories without spending a fortune to do it.

One of our favourite things is watching people walk through the door for the first time and hearing that little gasp when they see the arcade. There's this moment when they realize it feels a bit like they've walked back in time.

But I especially love when grandparents bring their grandkids.

Almost immediately, they're pointing at machines and saying things like, "I used to play this one!" or "I remember playing that one at the corner store!" and then they show their grandkids how it's done.

Maybe that's really what Retro Oasis is all about: not just remembering the good old days but getting to share a little piece of them with the people they love.

If you haven't been to Retro Oasis yet, come check us out. And if you have, come back soon!