A Quarter of Cola Cubes and a Bag Full of Memories

A trip to the local newsagent’s or corner shop was a proper little adventure when I was a kid. Pocket money in hand, you had some important decisions to make.

First, there were the comics. I was a Beano lad, although there was also Whizzer and Chips, The Dandy and Eagle to tempt me. Thinking back, I remember Oink! too, which went on to become my favourite. That probably deserves a story of its own.

But as much as I loved a comic, the real attraction was behind the counter.

Those jars of sweets.

Rows of them, all filled with something different. Cola cubes, pineapple chunks, sherbet lemons, pear drops… How were you supposed to choose just one?

“A quarter of cola cubes, please.”

Then came the little routine that was somehow part of the treat. The shopkeeper would lift down the jar, unscrew the lid and tip the sweets into the metal bowl on the scales. You’d watch as they weighed out your quarter of a pound, before pulling out a white paper bag and sliding the sweets inside.

Nothing fancy. Just a paper bag full of possibilities and a fairly serious decision about which one to eat first.

The choice seemed endless. Sherbet pips, all sorts of flavoured bonbons, midget gems, jelly beans, rhubarb and custards, aniseed twists and barley sugars. Then there were Army and Navy sweets, with that unmistakable aniseed flavour, and chewing nuts: chocolate-covered toffee, without a nut in sight.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten plenty. You’re probably already thinking of three I should have mentioned.

And that wasn’t even the best bit.

There were the penny and halfpenny sweets.

They had a counter of their own, with plastic tubs full of things that made spending your pocket money a task requiring considerable thought. You couldn’t rush a decision like this. There was a budget involved.

White chocolate mice, Fruit Salads, Black Jacks, strawberry laces and flying saucers with sherbet hidden inside their papery shells. Foam bananas and shrimps, strawberry foam mushrooms and gummy false teeth, because apparently eating something shaped like a set of dentures was perfectly normal.

Then you had chocolate Jazzies and white chocolate Snowies, with their little coloured sprinkles. Cola bottles, beer bottles, milk bottles and liquorice torpedoes. And just when you thought you’d made your mind up, there were the fizzy ones to consider.

Choosing was half the fun. Did you go for a few favourites, or try to get as many different sweets into that bag as possible? Every halfpenny counted. This was probably the most seriously I took maths all week.

Looking back, it wasn’t only about the sugar. It was having a little money of your own and deciding how to spend it. Picking your comic, studying the jars and coming away with a bag of sweets you’d chosen yourself.

Fifty pence felt like a small fortune. The hardest part was deciding what to do with it.

If you could walk back into that shop with 50p in your pocket, what would be going in your paper bag?