To celebrate 7/11, I’ve decided to share a short list of my favorite 7-Eleven items. These snacks will take you back.
I didn’t have a 7-Eleven in my neighborhood growing up. I had the Greenwood Pharmacy. And the Greenwood Pharmacy had a Slush Puppie machine. As I shared in my 12-Inch Poll on Gen-X drinks, we abused that machine so badly the clerk moved it behind the counter. No matter; we just took our business across the street to Pump’n Pantry & loaded our Regular Limes up with 5 pumps.
The 7-Eleven in my hometown of Wakefield was a block away from the Wakefield Station stop on the Commuter Rail, just down the street from my Auntie Helen’s house. When I was a kid, my Auntie Helen would host a big 4th of July cookout in her backyard for my mom’s side of the family. As the festivities were winding down, she’d come out of the house with a stack of crisp dollar bills, one for each kid.
My cousin Jason and I were old enough to have permission to walk to the 7-Eleven, so you know were were taking our dollars there. And a buck bought you a fair amount of candy back in the ’80s. I can’t say I ever had a Slurpee back in those days; my introduction to that and other signature 7-Eleven goodies would come much later, when I was in high school.
My Favorite 7-Eleven Items in Celebration of 7/11
Some of these things you can still get at your local 7-Eleven. Others, I don’t know. It’s been a minute since I’ve popped in. I’ll have to ask my oldest son, because–get this–his summer job is in that same Wakefield ‘hood. Just last week, I picked him up after work at Wakefield Station. He was sitting on a bench, slurping on a Slurpee.