It’s just one of those things. Cotton Candy evokes fairs and circuses and those terrible cheap sideshow carnivals. Awful but memorable, all the same.
Pure sugar rush, of course. And oh my goodness yes terrible for anyone to eat. But one of those tastes that just instantly triggers a memory (or bunches of them).
Scents are supposed to be the strongest memory triggers of all, so I presume that the smell produced by a cotton candy machine, caramelized sugar that carries on the breeze, would be the strongest. Popcorn machines too, all carnivals have popcorn, right?
Carnivals and circuses and zoos are just wonderlands of these kinds of sensations.
The trick is giving your little beggars enough of the Terribad foods to form lifetime memories, but not enough to have them ralphing in your car all the way home, right?
Tell us about a sensation — a taste, a smell, a piece of music — that transports you back to childhood.
ParkInkSpot 
Cotton candy belongs at the carnivals, fairs, etc. The packaged stuff that they are selling at Walmart is just not the same. 🙂
Alas, in my asthma-clogged sinuses there is very little sense of smell left, and I MISS being able to smell things! A much more important sense than any of us realize, I think.