Childhood Favourites

You know how it is when you start reminiscing about your childhood especially when you are with a bunch of friends and one persons recollection sparks off something else in your memory well we had one of those days. It must have something to do with word association or something similar because I am certain the topic we ended on is not what we started on...

I am fairly certain that it all started when I mentioned that I had just had sardines on toast for tea when I met up with a bunch of friends. I had not had it for years as sardines in oil, and not tomato sauce, are very hard to get here and remarked that it reminded me of my childhood and watch Dr Who on the TV on a Saturday night.

After a long discussion over which was the best Doctor ( John Pertwee), the scariest monster (there are several but as a child it had to be the Daleks) and the sexiest assistant ( not that I remember at the time but watching repeats it has to be Leela in her skimpy animal skins) we moved on to other childhood memories.

It did not take us long to end up on sweets and what a plethora of choice there was all those years ago and what great value allowing us to stretch our pocket money seemingly for ever, or at least until the following Saturday when the next week’s instalment was forthcoming.

It seemed many of us had the same favourites and manufacturers at the time must have made a small fortune from us if every small child had similar preferences. Strangely enough very few of our favourites still remain, possibly falling foul of rules concerning what additives can now be used although it seemed to do us little harm at the time.

There are certainly more children diagnosed as ADHD now than when I was a child – then it was put down to youthful exuberance and we were allowed to run around the garden or the then safe streets. Perhaps they were also offset by the mud and earth we used to eat as we played outside and did not spend hours in front of a TV screen.

So back to the sweets – favourites were fruit salads and blackjacks, small chews that you would buy at 8 for 1/2p or 16 for 1p. Quickly following these were outer spacers, rice paper stuffed with sherbet and looking like UFOs  and Pirate’s Tobacco – coconut strands covered in something dark and sticky.

There were also gobstoppers and aniseed balls all of which I assume have been band due to the potential risk of chocking on them.

For an opportunity to make a complete mess there were liquorice bootlaces or the larger fireman’s hoses

I also remember being able to go into a sweet store and be paced by hundreds of clear plastic containers filled with a myriad of choices, so many in fact that often you would just but 2oz of several different ones as you could not make up your mind. Who remembers toffee or lemon bon bons, everton mints, liquorice allsorts, roses, quality street or sherbet lemons?

As I moved into my teens I remember 2 different types of cabana bars, one with cherry and one with melon that came in and out of fashion annually. There were also plain chocolate bounty bars, flakes and ripple bars as well as lion bars and picnic bars.

Oh how I miss them especially as many of the choices that are readily available in the UK are not available elsewhere.

It may not be the best chocolate in the world but it is certainly the most comforting