Seven Days freelance photographer Daria Bishop started buying PEZ candy dispensers 20 years ago as holiday gifts for her young children. She loved the bunny rabbits at Easter and the Santa figures at Christmas. For Bishop, 57, it was less about the candy and more about the zany characters. As her kids grew, so did her PEZ collection — she now has about 600.
PEZ is short for pfefferminz, German for “peppermint.” The candy brand was founded in Austria in 1927. By the 1950s, the company had introduced 3D heads for the dispensers. The variety of the characters has made them popular with collectors such as Bishop. After years of storing her impressive arsenal in plastic tubs, she hired a local woodworker to make some shallow shelves to show them off.
In the latest episode of “Stuck in Vermont,” Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger visited Bishop’s apartment in Burlington to peruse her colorful collectibles.
Filming date: 3/27/25
Music: Quincas Moreira, “Rainbow Forest”
This episode of “Stuck in Vermont” was supported by The Vermont Community Foundation.
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This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2025.
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