Sweet Memories

Spangles - the cola ones were the best. No debate

It’s been a busy weekend. A 40^th birthday party and helping out at a local music festival.

The birthday party was based around a disco where the DJ played hits from the 70’s and 80’s – the Sunday Dinner era of music, before songs were mashed-up, remixed and reheated for Monday tea in the Noughties. Most guests were happily wallowing around in nostalgia – think Glastonbury but with slightly cleaner memories of a time when scabs were thick, flares were a health and safety hazard in anything more than a light breeze and you could proudly announce to your friends that you’d had your hair done at a place called Shaggers.

The party’s theme continued right up to the end, (although this time my Dad didn’t come to pick me up in his slippers), when I was issued with a Party Bag that was full of all those sweets that so flavoured my childhood.

Today, my daughter insists that the only chocolate she eats is dark, organic and fair-trade. Not so the 'Spangles Generation,' who knew that the 5p back from the Corona bottle could buy you a bag of sweets that were reduced to just a few waxed paper wrappers by the time you got home. I was transported down my own Sweet Memory Lane lined with Sherbert fountains, Mojos, Fruit Salads, Blackjacks, Toffee Bon-Bons and Pineapple Cubes – and like all reminiscences of the good ol' days it was a bit tacky underfoot. I mean - I enjoyed them, but I did have to ask myself how I didn’t end up doubling for Shane McGowan.

However, it was a mistake to consume all that sugar and E numbers just before going to bed. Eating flying saucers? – I thought I was in one of them…