Ooooh I love sweets! So many memories flooding back while browsing this cool site, www.aquarterof.co.uk I MISS COLA CUBES! and cola bottles, aniseed balls – in fact EVERYTHING THAT’S ON THERE lol
Can you still get “proper” sweet shops? I know it’s probably impossible to get 1p or “penny” sweets these days, inflation has probably pushed it up to 10p by now, but it’s the actual shop I miss most…
I loved going to the sweet shop as a kid, with some pocket money in hand, perhaps a 50p, and with it all the dreams that a 50p could make possible (50p was very powerful back than, especially in a childs mind, I could take over the world with 50p)..
I’d get in to the shop and stare at acres and acres of chocolate bars and crisps all laid out perfectly, and beyond the counter stood paradise! a wall a mile high, and 3 miles wide, FULL of jars of every conceivable sweet.. and often a ladder they would used to get the top jars..
I’d spend a good half an hour just staring, going over and over in my head all the possibilities, choices and combinations that would give maximum ROI (ROI back then was popularity amongst friends, sugar rush, E-number poisoning and having pockets rammed full of slightly sticky thin paper bags, full of sweets.
After a while, the shop keeper would usually prompt me to choose something, I’d hesitate, then ask how much a quarter of kola cubes were – or which ever sweet took my fancy – and he’d reply something like 20p, I’d consider and probe the store keeper some more to try and get a better deal. Finally I’d load up and go, satisfied I’d done good business, and got the best bang for my buck.
I was always a sucker for sweet that mad you pull silly faces, then shake your head involuntarily in disgust, then say yum. Never understood that, and I’m still like it. Wasn’t a fan of UFO things, sugar paper and sherbet YUCK, eating those was like scrapping your nails down a black board – I’m cringing now just thinking about it. Chocolate never lasted, many failed attempts of stuffing my pockets with chocolate made me realise that boiled was the way forward.
Things don’t really change, 25 odd years later I still stand and stare for ages, ask questions and annoy shop keepers – but its usually over a mobile phone, TV or car..
Could you get a gob stopper in your mouth? could you get it out again lol… And what about bricks of honeycomb? awesome! popping space dust stuff – brilliant, did you do the popping space dust and coke thing? hahahah those were the days! 3 or 4 packets straight in, then the Coke – stand clear! That reminds me of a friend who put 2 tubes of sherbet in his mouth with a some Coke or Dr Pepper, human fire extinguisher! not instant, and not out his mouth – he refused to open his mouth as we wanted his cheeks to explode (you don’t think forward as a kid lol) but they didn’t, but it did produce two jets of foam from his nose!
I’m seriously in a nice place right now, gonna go and remember some more.
Don’t let sweets fade out, boycott bars, stick to sweets!
What was your favourite sweet? How do you remember the good old days?
