I will eat just any sweets
Bounty’s, Mars and Treats
But there is one that drives me loopy
You just can’t beat those Tootie Fruities
20th March 2023 – Trying to remember what Treats were it appears that they were actually called Treets and seem to be a superior version of Peanut M&Ms. I actually never really liked Mars bars, preferring Marathons (as Snickers were called then). As for Bounties I really loved the Dark Chocolate one but for some reason, they were really hard to find.
Looking up a picture of Tootie Fruities I see that they have now been discontinued in 2019! Sometimes I would just pour the whole pack into my mouth, sometimes with a few sips of black tea to soften them up, then enjoy the mixing of the mad flavours as they galvanised into a huge chewy clump. Other times I would tip them out and eat them in ascending order of favourite flavours. This is something I didn’t really consider about other people who had siblings and would have to eat them in descending flavour order. Has this affected my personality? I think so! I can easily defer satisfaction and enjoy the anticipation.
After moving to Australia in 1994 I really missed British candies. Australia has less variety and is more Americanised. Eventually, one or two stores did specialise in sweets from the UK and I would enjoy a nostalgic 50 grams of mint imperials or midget gems, often spending way too much on a haul.
My absolute favourite sweets were from the local shop in Horton, Dorset and were only available for a short while when one shopkeeper was running things there. I guessed they were some kind of local mix but they were the best ever though I’d be hard-pushed to tell you exactly what they contained, except there being things of a green apple flavour, which whilst more common now was very unusual then.
Getting distracted with looking on Google Maps, it seems that the Horton shop is no longer there, Holt shop too – just as the Gaunts shop had closed when I was still living there. I wonder if, but doubt that, they still make the magazine Country Life which my grandparents often had around the house. Is it this feeling of simpler times that has led me to country life in Chiang Rai?
I still visit the lolly shops whenever I’m back in the UK and there’s no chance of finding anything like that here in North Thailand.
1994ever 