Could You Really Score Free Candy If You Found This Special Tootsie Pop Wrapper?
When you're a kid, there's nothing better than hearing two simple words. Is it "snow day?" Maybe it's "Merry Christmas?" Perhaps it's something more tangible, a sweet surprise. If you guessed "free candy," you'd be right. There is nothing, and we mean NOTHING, kids past and present wouldn't do for some free candy. Just hearing the words will get them asking, "Where is it? How do I get it? What do I have to do to get it? As long as I score some free candy, I'm up for anything!"
With this mindset, kids were excited by the legend of free Tootsie Pops going as far back as the 1930s. As Candy Favorites explains, the rumor spread that should you find a picture of a young boy dressed as a Native American aiming his bow at a star, you could mail it in and win free Tootsie Pops. If the combination of lollipop and Tootsie Rolls wasn't enough to give kids a sugar high, the alluring promise of free candy would have made them run to the nearest candy store in droves. The great treasure became like gold to these kids as they tore their way through wrapper upon wrapper to secure their sugary prize.
However, according to Snopes, the legend of the wrapper may not have warranted the prize most expected.
You don't officially win free candy
Picture yourself as a kid, spending what little pocket change you have on a Tootsie Pop. As you carefully inspect the wrapper, you see it: a young boy dressed as a Native American shooting a bow and arrow at a star. After all that time, you finally found the star wrapper! What sort of delicious prizes are in store?
Nothing.
As it turns out, Tootsie Roll never officially stated that you would get free candy if you found a star on your wrapper. As Tootsie Roll explains, no one is sure where the rumor of the star wrapper comes from. The star on the wrappers appears pretty frequently (1 in every 4 to 6 wrappers by Tootsie Roll's estimations), meaning that it wasn't exactly as rare a find as some would want you to believe. As compensation for those seeking free lollipops, the company made a special letter detailing the history and mythos behind the star on the wrapper involving a Native American man helping the creator of Tootsie Pops invent the candy.
Still, the legend of the star wrappers lives on. TODAY reports that some remember getting free candy in exchange for star wrappers, presumably by a sympathetic store owner. Video game designer Joshua Sawyer tweeted the Tootsie Roll legend was the inspiration for a quest in the 2010 video game "Fallout: New Vegas," where you must collect bottle caps marked with a star to earn a fabulous prize (via Xbox Achievements).