childhood memories

Part one: the 50-cent Mixture.

A white paper bag with treats inside: twisted or sometimes stapled at the top. My Kiwi grandmother called them 'lol-lols', kids at school called them 'lollies', my British grandmother called them 'sweets'.

The dairy near the bus stop had stickers and bubble gum in their bags. And sometimes you got sherbet with a little straw, or tattoos.

Yesterday, we got one set of false teeth, two jubes, a milk bottle, pebble, marshmallow, blackcurrant and a chocolate heart.

Comments

[alice]

Haha, we used to have 20p mixes here (still do for all i know). And you got a LOT of sweets for 20p in the early eighties. It's a wonder i have any teeth. How did you divvy up the spoils? :)

[Jessicah]

Love the chocolate heart- was it the one with strawberry marshmellow inside? They are second onoly to the little chocolate fish. What a fun thing to do. Looking forward to seeing what else is on your list!

[rachael]

I have fond memories of this too. It amazes me even these days how far the little ones manage to eek out their 50 c. Carefully chosen goodies all popped into a little paper bag. Then my littlies are driven mad by a neurotic mother saying things like 'go and have two big drinks of water' and 'go and brush your teeth' and 'you'd better brush them again, an extra two minutes would be good' and finally "one more glass of water please'. Then I try and relax in the knowledge that the teeth are clean, the sugar and food colouring diluted within, and the children are smiling because they've had a sweet treat.

I know already. I'm such a drama queen.

xx Rachael xx

[The Shopping Sherpa]

I'm feeling so old - in my day it was a 5 cent mixture and things like aniseed balls (my faves) were 5 for a cent.

Popsicles were around 7 cents and I remember occassionally walking to school instead of taking the bus so I could spend the bus fare on an iceblock. Not that I told Mum this!

[jen]

i remember going up the road to buy lollies this way

[Fiona]

yum...

[Violet & Rose]

No! Surely not! Is this what 50 cents of mixed lollies looks like in 2007? Back in "my day" 50 cents was a bulging bag that hardly twisted at the top. It was the ultimate! The be all and end all. My standard was the 20 cent mixed bags, my highlight being the bananas. My mother always stole the black cats. Oh, and I was always partial to the raspberries. The other tragedy I discovered the other day was that "fags" are now called "fads". Do you have them in NZ? And I was trying to remember the other day the name of that white marshmellow coated with chocolate and with caramel inside as well. About as big as a tim-tam, but much thinner.... Ahhh, it's on the tip of my tongue. Used to go downstairs at work and buy them off the Indian man in the dairy who always told us about his son going to university. Every day. I'm not sure what was worse, the fact that I bought these every day or that I had to listen to the same story every day?

[esther]

I remember when 50 cents got you a mammoth stash of lollies. My brother and I used to cash in used soft drink bottles and splurge on mixed bags and icypoles...icypoles were only 20 cents!!

[rhondajean]

Hello. I've given you an award. The details are on my blog. : )

[Ali]

Oh, I feel old, because in my day, 50c of mixed lollies was heaps. Glad to see they still make teeth though. My favourites were the blackcurrant jubes and the milk bottles. Once, inspired by how good a blackcurrant jube and a milk bottle tasted together, I tried putting Ribena in milk to duplicate the taste.

Nope. Sour blackcurrant curds and whey - revolting.

[Claudia]

At my first boarding school, we were allowed 30p worth of penny sweets every sunday. The teachers set up a buffet in the library, and we would dutifully pass along, filling our paper bags and doing the maths in our heads, ensuring we got the optimum mix. You got a lot more for 30p in those days than you do for 50p nowadays.

[shula]

Oh WOW!

I'd forgotten all about this.

[Tash]

That reminds me of going to the local market and being able to spend pocket-money on sweets. Over here you get a little basket and can pick out the sweets which are then tallied and put in a bag - each sweet being either 1p, 2p or 5p depending on size. Milkbottles were my favourite, the ones that were coated in cornflour to stop them sticking together, and parma violets, flowers on the tongue!

[Susan]

Yum - the milk bottles for me please. We call them mix-ups and they are currently retailing for either 10p or 20p depending on the amount of sweets inside! Not many places sell them now to be honest, but the kids still manage to find them on occasion!

[Zelia]

Ah! You just reminded me of my grandfather... he'd give us ten pence for candie that would come in a brown paper cone... I miss him so much...

[Pat]

In the U.S. we call lollies penny candy. When i was a child in the 40.s we got a nickel every 2 weeks and got a big bag of candy for our 5 cents. Sure weas good

[Ellen]

Wish we had something like that in the States!

[amisha]

this made me smile so much... sounds like so much fun to open the bag and see what surprises await you! the false teeth are too funny. we didn't have anything like that where i grew up though i know many years ago there was 'penny candy' but that was before my time :)
xo