I love sweets. Always have done and probably always will. It is such a childhood favourite and a real treat. I know my two boys love buying some sweets from the school tuck shop every Friday, and while I would not want them eating sweets every day, I do not see the harm in being allowed some a few times a week.
When I think back to my childhood I have many fond memories when it comes to sweets. I remember my Grandparents taking my brother and I to a sweet shop in Thatcham every week after school to buy some penny sweets, or a 1/4 of boiled sweets. I remember liking lemon sherbets and a clear boiled sweet which we called ‘lassie drops’, which I am sure was not their real name but that is what I remember naming them! My nanny and na would buy pear drops – I never liked pear drops!
This got me wondering what memories other bloggers had when it comes to sweets, because I think it summons up such nostalgia. So I asked some and here is what they told me:
Werther’s bonbons remind me of my grandad. He’d always have some in his pocket when we went for walks in the woods, blackberry picking or on our little adventures on a Saturday morning
Carolin
Pear drops – I can always remember going to the village shop with my Grandad to buy Pear drops. He’d always have a jar on the side in the kitchen and would let the grandchildren have one when we’d been well behaved
Sarah
Shrimps and bananas remind me of Sunday’s after church. We got 50p each and were allowed to spend it all in the shop on the way home but could only eat a few before dinner. It was torture. Oh and Mint Poppets remind me of Ballet shows. They were the only thing in the Futurist Theatre in Scarborough that I was allowed because of allergies
Alice
Walking home from school on a Friday we passed a sweet shop on the corner and we were given 10p to go in and buy some sweets for the next week. I used to buy a Sherbet Dip around 5p and then some space ships – those rice paper UFO’s filled with sherbet
Cerys
Highland toffee after swimming. We’d use the locker money (5p) to buy one from the vending machine
Helen
Pineapple rings and cola cubes were always my favourites. We bought some cola cubes from a little sweetshop in Whitby not long ago and they were totally different to what I remember
Cass
Fruit Salads and Black Jacks – I never really liked them but they were only a penny! My favourites were rhubarb and custard or chocolate limes.
Liz
Bon bons! Still love them today 😋 strawberry
Mari
Rhubarb and custard. I used to have a bag from the sweet shop on a Friday after school and looked forward so much to our Friday walk home
Nikki
Of course back then a sweet shop really was just that. A little shop with shelves stacked with big jars of sweets, paper bags and scales, and then a few trays of penny sweets and chews in the front counter. When my family and I first moved to North Devon the town we lived in had an old fashioned sweet shop next door to the shop we owned. Sadly, the couple were already near retirement age and so the shop soon closed down and was replaced by a sports shop instead!!! How annoying – sweets over sports equipment anyday in my opinion lol! However, luckily for me my parents decided to sell sweets in our shop, and we had a pic ‘n’ mix display aswell as penny chews, and it was my favourite job to visit suppliers such as Appleton Wholesale Sweets with my parents to choose delicious sweets to sell to our customers.
Nowadays most sweets get bought in pre wrapped bags in supermarkets, which while still lovely to eat, it is a shame that more sweet shops do not exists in towns as they did in my childhood.
What are your sweet memories from your childhood?
Jenny, you should put a pic of the amazing cone sweet bags they sell st the Tuck Shop! Xx