Karljohann and PEZ

I started collecting PEZ about 50 years ago - although I didn't know it at the time. A good friend of our family had emigrated to the United States. She occasionally sent packages to Finland containing many useful things, as everything was in short supply after the second World War. Occasionally the packages contained candy and bubble gum for the (then) little boy. The candy was often PEZ, because they were a sweet treat and a toy in one. Because toys were hard to come by in the post-war Finland, I did not throw the figures away after I had eaten the candy. I kept them for playtime and games instead. 

Then the little boy grew up and the games changed. The PEZ were forgotten for decades. I did not even remember the old dispensers - stashed away in a box - as my daughter collected PEZ for a couple of years. Only once I moved from one city to another did I stumble across the old box among the moving load.