As a young girl, Tabitha Crider would get off the school bus at her grandmother's candy shop and help her make butter mints.

"I remember she'd hold this big bowl of mint candy mixture on her hip and she'd pull out a handful of it and just whirl her fingers down the table -- dropping perfectly formed pastel-colored mints -- in long rows," she says, while moving her fingers to demonstrate the technique. "After the mints hardened, she'd run her arms under the Teflon sheet that covered the table and release the mints. It was my job to pick them up and place them in a container for her shop's display counter. Then, I'd get to scrape off all the drippings. I was really good at that and so on occasion, I get to eat the little pieces of butter mint left behind."

Looking at Crider today it's hard to imagine she grew up in a candy-making and restaurant-owning family. She's slender and athletic, more fitting her career as a personal trainer at FirstHeath's Health and Fitness Center.

"I was around candy all the time, so it really didn't have any hold over me -- it was always there," she says. "The Wrigley's gum and Pepsi in my grandmother's shop had more appeal when I was in school."

But today, the candy's allure is making its way back into her life -- and the life of her husband, Matt. The Criders, along, with Steve and Liz Pattison, are the new owners of Poppy's and Pinehurst Sundry, the charming coffee shop in the village of Pinehurst.

They are bringing Mrs. Gibble's Candies -- including those pretty little butter mints and 60 kinds of melt-in-your mouth chocolate -- from Pennsylvania to Poppy's in Pinehurst, and just in time for Easter.

"We're really excited about the candy," says Crider, as she arranges the Easter candy display.

"We have a humidity-controlled candy counter filled with over 60 types of candy including, milk, dark, white, and sugar-free chocolate. And, it's the real thing -- pure chocolate without any preservatives -- so it's very smooth and silky."

Mrs. Gibble's Candies has had a rich history and a loyal following, particularly in Pennsylvania. It began as many businesses do, to fulfill a need.

Crider's great-grandmother, Mary Myers, developed rheumatic fever and was not allowed to attend school. To save herself from boredom, she took a correspondence course in candy-making. After Mary married Ray Gibble, the couple began taking their homemade candy and potato chips to the farmers' market in Chambersburg, Pa. In the 1940s, they opened a store in their home and later moved the operation to a storefront.

The candy-making business was slowly turned over to her daughter, Vernice, Tabitha Crider's grandmother, and son-in-law, Sonny.

When the potato chip and candy business began to outgrow the space they had, the business was moved again to Greencastle, Pa., and the name changed to Mrs. Gibble's Candies and Restaurant. Today, Tabitha's mother and father manage the restaurant and her grandmother operates the candy business next door.

"She's in there every day making candy from her mother's recipes," Crider says. "She has one other full-time employee and some additional seasonal help, including my mom, when she is needed. The clerks package the candy in their free time."

The candy assortment includes the popular Easter eggs filled with vanilla, chocolate nougat, coconut crme and fruit and nuts.

"The cream eggs have just the right amount of sweetness to them, not too much sugar," she says. "And the eggs are lovingly handmade."

The crme centers are made from the family recipe and then hand-rolled into egg shapes and dipped into chocolate.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing is made by a machine," Crider says. "Some of the molds she uses are very old -- from the 1930s -- they're made from metal and some are valuable. You just don't see candy made from them anymore."

One of those molds, recently uncovered in a box in the candy shop, is of a seven-inch rabbit with a golf bag on its back.

"So you know my grandmother is very busy with that particular mold right now since so many bunnies will be making the trip to Pinehurst for Easter," Crider says with a laugh.

The unique chocolate golfing bunny is in stock and for sale at Poppy's along with a variety of cute molded bunnies -- lop-eared, chubby, hollow, and solid; the crme eggs, crosses, chocolate "lollipops," chocolate-covered pretzels, pecan rolls, caramels, sugar-free varieties, and her personal favorite, the peanut butter melt-away.

She recalls that as a young girl her Easter basket was a "family basket" prepared by her grandmother.

"It carried candy for all of us and the candy was tagged with our names," Crider says. "I always got the peanut butter candy -- if it had peanut butter, it was mine, all mine."

The Criders feel the introduction of the specialty candy to Poppy's and the village of Pinehurst will fill a niche.

"There's nothing better than a wonderful piece of chocolate, and Poppy's is a great place to offer it," she says.

"Now there's a place for kids and adults to share the fun of selecting a special piece of candy. What a tribute to my great-grandmother and grandmother," Crider says, with the proud smile of a third generation in the family candy business -- whether she really wants to admit it or not.

Claudia Watson is a Pinehurst freelance writer and may be contacted at cwatson87@nc.rr.com.