You’ve taken me back to the 70’s, when I sang and danced down all the way down to the ‘wee shop’ at the bottom of the street. “Can I see the trays, please?”, I asked politely. Then for the next ten minutes, I drooled as I decided what I wanted most. Trays of sweeties ranging from ½p, all the way up to the extravagant 5p assortment. So hard to decide. Flying saucers that melted, leaving a fizziness on your tongue. Lollies. Parma violets. Fizzy Lizzies. Lovehearts. Drumsticks…
 Swizzels, you were part of my childhood. It was a good one!


Liz Sirrell

My fiancé proposed by setting a trail petals and mini packets of love hearts (as he knows how much I love them) all the way to the garden where I found him on one knee surrounded by candles. It was so cute and romantic, I just had to say 'yes'!

Hannah Morley-smith

One day I spend my money on some white chocolate 'fish and chips' from the local shop. I was eating the 'chip' one section at a time and my wobbly tooth fell out. It ruined the rest of the chip as it got blood on it!

Nicola Perry

I remember fondly buying bags of rainbow drops with my pocket money at our local park after cycling around with friends. Years later, I fell in love and married a fellow rainbow drop admirer. It was obviously meant to be. Except he eats his with lashings of milk instead of cereal!

Claire Burgess

I was in our local fete day, 1963, aged 5. Then, the route was 3 miles and the day I did it, it was wet, cold and miserable (June). Children had to hold hands with a helper and ours handed out Rowntrees Pastilles. The other girl next to me always got red, black, yellow, orange. I always got green! I've never eaten green sweets since!

Marina Wilson

Being embarrassed to give love hearts to boy classmates

Classroom Love!

Spending time with my mum, daughter and granddaughter 4 generations together on a day out at the seaside and out for tea all at the same time. Priceless!

We’re all going on a summer holiday

There are so many but one that comes to mind are of my grandpa cooking French toast on Saturday mornings. I would wake up to the smell before the sun even came up. He would send me to wake up everyone in the house cause he knew I liked to. I miss him so much, he was the greatest grandpa.

My first ever memory is rolling down the stairs on my side from the top step, all to get a bag of sweets. I never got those sweets

In the day that it is (St Valentine’s day), I was thinking about my parents and about how they met and were married.
They met many years ago in the 1940’s, when my father ran away with the circus. My mother lived on that circus and several years later, they fell in love and married. Nothing overly unusual about that, but the old romantic my father was, asked my mum to marry him via a love hearts sweet!
He bought some sweets, in around the late 50’s, and as they were sharing them, he was rummaging through them until he came across one that said “Marry me”. Went down on bended knee, and said nothing but gave her the sweet! Apparently, she laughed thinking he was joking (my dad was well know for a great sense of humour), but he wasn’t laughing. In fact he was very serious. Mam said yes (still laughing I gather), and the rest is history, as they say.

I remember going to the corner shop and getting some sweets and i saw the bubblegum drumstick and i tried it and today i love it

I can remember eating drumsticks walking home from school. They were from the local corner shop run by two spinster sisters.
I liked the way you could chew your drumstick and get the flavour out first, and then it peaked to a gooey strand that flopped to one side, before you pulled it off the stick with your teeth and ate it all up.
My children too have grown up with drumsticks and double lollies, especially at Christmas time. They make good stocking fillers.

I can remember at junior school, leaving a row of love hearts in a message in a boy's desk, for him to find the next morning.