Tootsie Pops and the Indian Wrapper

I don't eat a lot of non-chocolate candy, but a raspberry Tootsie Pop was given to me recently and I gave in to nostalgia. It is still pretty fantastic! I noticed that my wrapper had that legendary Indian (meaning a child dressed up as a Native American) on the wrapper.

When I was a kid, a popular myth that we all took for truth had to do with that picture. Word on the street (and in back yards, parks, school hallways) was that when you got a wrapper with an Indian shooting a star, it could be traded in for a free Tootsie Pop.

This childhood 'fact' was perpetuated for many years in my small town because the owner of a local corner store allowed it. Any kid that wandered into the store and presented the clerk with an Indian wrapper was given a free Tootsie Pop. The practice was not endorsed or promoted by the Tootsie Pop company, but was simply the choice of the nice owner who paid for this candy from his own pocket. This went on until that little shop was replaced by a chain convenience store.

I now live in an area roughly 10 times the population size of my hometown. I asked my kids if the wrapper meant anything to them but they had never heard of the free candy rumor.

If anyone wants to trade a Tootsie Pop for my wrapper, I like cherry, grape and chocolate too.  ;-)

Learn more about Tootsie Pop wrapper legends:
Shooting Star
A Tootsie Pop Mystery
Rumors for Tootsie Pops

The Legend of the Indian Wrapper