Cotton Candy or Candy Floss?

Debbie Haney spins cotton candy at Rock Springs Park 1970.

Cotton Candy is the same thing as Candy Floss. Both names are adopted from the original “fairy floss” created by two Nashville, Tennessee candy makers and popularized at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.

The signs hung in Rock Springs Park’s Cotton Candy Stand show it was called both back in 1968. In the photograph, owner Bob Hand shapes a cardboard stick used to collect the floss of pure sugar in a large heated bowl. The sugary strands wound on the cardboard stick and were best served immediately. Behind Bob a hand-painted sign advertises “Candy Floss 15 Cents” and a lighted sign next to it reads “Cotton Candy”. (Click on image to enlarge and see both signs.)

Many have described the delicious aroma of the cotton candy being spun as they ascended the stairs next to the spring upon entering the park via the lower park entrance, which is why I included a package of Cotton Candy in a gift basket to be auctioned off at the “Take Me Home Country Roads 1st Annual Reunion” to be held at the Chester Municipal Building on July 7, 2012.