I remember, as a little girl (not all that long ago, too - I'm only 20 now), that whenever the synagogue would celebrate the Bar or Bat Mitzvah of someone in the congregation, there'd be a couple of people walking around the shul passing out individually-wrapped Sunkist Fruit Gems to everyone in the pews.

 

When the ceremony came to a close, that was our cue to stand up and start pelting the newly Bar or Bat Mitzvah'd girl or boy with the candies, to "wish" them a sweet beginning to the start of their adult life - which is why Fruit Gems were chosen: they were a nice, soft candy that wouldn't accidentally put your eye out.

 

Once the pelting was done, all of us little kids would run up to the bemah to collect up the candy; it was one of the few reasons I liked wearing a dress: I could scoop up and hold onto more candies than the boys could, without risking squashing those sweet prizes.

 

Being a rather unusual kid (maybe it was the fact that the only Avondale I could go to, for a long while, was across a busy road), I'd hoard my candies and try to save them as long as I could - after all, as long as they were still wrapped, they'd stay soft and chewy (not that I liked them any less, once they'd gotten hard). ~ Hannah from Ontario