Last week readers were asked to reflect on stops at Stuckey’s stores across the land and we got lots of feedback.

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I happened to get my first real job at Stuckey’s. I recall working in the restaurant selling drinks, hot dogs and hamburgers, which is how I learned to interact with the public and how to make change by counting it back. Stuckey’s sold lots of kitschy souvenirs in addition to their candy. Remember those cedar plaques with the letters burned into them? My favorite was the teacher’s paddle, and no wonder, I eventually became a teacher, although I never owned one of those Stuckey’s paddles.

Thanks for the memories!

April

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Hey Nelson,

I loved your Stuckey’s article. Every year my family would take off on a driving vacation and Stuckey’s was one of my brother Jim and my favorite memories (we were Jimmy and Holly Ann back then). We would spend what seemed like hours looking for just the right thing. Every year without fail, we would both walk out with a pair of moccasins and rock candy.

Holly

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My late husband was from south Alabama, where eating boiled green peanuts was a delicacy. After moving to Mesquite in mid-seventies he, with much delight, found out Stuckey’s sold canned boiled peanuts. So with each trip to Van and East Texas, we stopped at Stuckey’s for several cans of boiled peanuts, pecan logs and divinity candy. My aunt and cousin actually worked at that Stuckey’s. I also could not ever understand the fun with that ball on a paddle either.

Claudia

Van, Texas

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Enjoyed your piece about Stuckey’s and especially your line about Buc-ee’s being a Stuckey’s on steroids.

When I was a kid my family lived in Abilene but my grandparents lived in Palestine. Traveling I-20 between Abilene and Fort Worth there was a Stuckey’s that we stopped at for the purpose of my Dad getting a pecan malt. At the time, the pecan flavor was only at a Stuckey’s. Of course, today, borrowing from your column, ‘Sonic Shakes and Malts has taken what Stuckey’s did back in the day and put it on steroids.’ Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

Mike

Quitman, Texas

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I remember canned boiled peanuts. Seems they were more prevalent in the stores in the Deep South. My dad was a salesman and I can remember him bringing them home from trips to Mississippi especially. My mom is from the Florida panhandle along the Georgia border where boiled peanuts are a staple. The canned ones held us over in between our yearly summer vacations to Florida.

Jack

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We were coming to Alto from Tyler and trying to remember the name Stuckey’s. I remember the pecan praline. It seemed that the store was high on pecan products. Maybe the small pecan pies? Enjoy.

Charles

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Duke’s Travel Plaza is in Canton, not Wills Point, if you are referring to the one on Interstate 20 at Highway 64 exit.

Lou Ann Everett, Mayor of Canton

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Things we remember about Stuckey’s: salt water taffy, pecan pralines, cork pop guns with string attached to cork, clothespin wooden pistol, rubber band shooters, whistles, kazoo.

Dick

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Allison recalled getting those miniature license plates with her name on it. It was always hard for me to find one with the name Nelson. In fact, of all three of my names they work fine as first or last names: Calvin Nelson Clyde. None were usual suspects on the license plate racks. When I was younger I used the Roman numeral IV at the end until my father passed away. My old friend Bill called me aside one day and reminded me it was time to drop the IV as an appropriate time had passed since I was the only one left using Nelson. It’s hard to know whether such traditions are British, Southern or derived from the practices of Emily Post.

The name Little Nelson was not working by then either. It stopped resonating when I hit 6’4” at the tender age of 13 even though Eleanor, Fritter and Betsy still remember.