I was a packet a day kid!
I’m sitting here remembering some of the lollies we used to have as kids back in the 50s to the 70s.
There were Fags of course, the cigarette lollies that we used to buy in little packets and walk around pretending to smoke, like dad.
I remember Columbines that came in a long blue packet and each lolly was individually wrapped in a blue silver paper. Jaffas were made by a company called Sweetacres and came in a cardboard box. They were ideal for rolling down the aisle of the local picture theatre during the Saturday afternoon matinee.
There was gob-stoppers and conversation lollies, all-day suckers and fruit tingles. We used to buy nigger blocks (no offence intended), four in a square and from memory they use to cost 1d. There was Hoadley’s Polly Waffle and the original Violet Crumble bars, Minties and Fantales came in boxes not plastic or cellophane bags. There was Wrigleys Juicy Fruit and PK chewing gum in little packs of four pellets and from memory they were tuppence each.
Haven’t had a Polly Waffle for years and Violet Crumble is definitely not the same anymore
There was sherberts that came in a white packet that had a licorice straw and MacRobertsons made the original Freddo frog, barley sugars, Cherry Ripes and Old Gold chocolate. Allens had Tootie Frooty and Steam Rollers in those little cylinder packs and they also made packets of Coconut Quivers
There were Choo Choo Bars and Red Skins, White Knights and Milko, Life Savers came in all sorts of flavours including Musk.
And remember going to the corner shop to buy 6d worth of assorted lollies in a bag?
Conversation Lollies, a great favourte from the school tuck shop.
Then there were home made lollies too including toffee apples. stickjaw toffees, toffee in patty pans, Russian toffee and coconut ice.
They’re just a few that I can remember, I’m sure there was a lot more. How on earth did we escape with any teeth left in our head?
What was your favourite lollies when growing up?
Cobbers, Pink Panthers, Sherbies, Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs.
my favorites were rainbow balls which you would get 4 for a cent so we would go to shop (deli) with 20 cents and come out with a bag of 80, also not sure what they were called but they were little choc balls, about the size of rainbow balls but they had little flecks of coconut through them. haven’t seen either since the early 70’s, wish I could find them again…yum yum….
They were coconut balls .. then there was cannon balls and butter buttons .. I used to get a bag for 20c and the white bag would be full to the top .. wish we could still get them ?
Cobbers were the best:)
Came from England 1971 aged 11 have always called them sweets, Tex bars were brilliant as were Dinosaur chews anyone remember them ? choo choo bars, hard toffee that would last cobbers etc, mojo chews 2 for 1 cent, milk bottles and false teeth that were chewy not soggy before damaging fillings became a litigation issue I guess, chikos, black cats, chewy not soggy redskins the list goes on magic memories and I do have a few teeth left !
Hi Michael, when is your birthday? ? I was also born in 1960..
Fantales were a favourite of mine: blue box with a fan on it. They were chocolate covered toffees (which removed to odd filling, I remember) and they were individually wrapped. The wrappings had details of film stars on them.
still miss Tex Bars, and they haven’t been around for god knows how many years! and home made lollies … spuds and toasted marshmallows were yum! and it all tasted so damn good .. nothing tastes the same these days 🙁
Oh and Kooka Bars .. always loved those!
Yes – kookas! My dad used to buy me one every week. I was beginning to think I imagined them. I a purple foil wrapper and looked a bit like a tim tam. Who made them?
I use to love kookas as well and really enjoyed them especially because there were 2 in each pkt seperated by cardboard
If I remember correctly, Kookas were the forerunner to the current Tim Tams. YUMMY.
Acid Drops, and Cobbers.
I would crawl a mile over broken glass to have a 1950s Tex Bat or Mintex Bar. Bill.
Oh, to have a Tex Bar again. It is good to see that others remember them too. 🙂
Sorry, Tex Bar.
In the late 50’s we were given scorched peanut bars. Drool. In one of the licorice show bags we used to get dumbbells. I cannot remember whether they were aniseed or licorice flavoured. Did I ever hang out for them. We also used to have fun peeling the licorice into fine strips or strings then eating it.
Growing up in Adelaide early fifties….Tandy’s tuppeny toffees…a square of caramel toffee on a toothpick with a square paper sleeve you pulled off and stuck the toffee in your mouth to last about an hour if you didn’t suck too hard on it. Tandys was an Adelaide company.
Does anyone remember milky stars? White chocolate ones in particular, think there were milk chocolate ones too. And white chocolate sheriff badges, oh yum, my sister and I still dream about them! Jo from Canberra
I work at the WEA centre, 223 Angas Street, Adelaide and it was once the Tandy factory!
Ironic that WEA offers a course in Belgian Truffle Making.
I have fond memories of the mashmallow bar, a slap of coloured mashmallow with wafer biscuits top and bottom and the sides of the mashmallow diped into coconut….mmm
Do you remember the checkmate chocolate block, a mixture of milk, white & dark chocolate squares in one clever block.
Who could for get marshmallow bars
@Karen … thanks for confirming that I hadn’t imagined once having a couple of squares of my father’s checkmate chocolate bar. He left us when I was 4, and that was one of my earliest memories and one of only a few memories I have of him. Am I remembering right … that it was made by Smalls? I can’t remember if it was milk chocolate and white chocolate on a base layer of dark chocolate, or white chocolate & dark chocolate on a base layer of milk chocolate? I can still remember the taste & smell of that combination. I only ever had that one taste of it, as we couldn’t have afforded anything like that after he left us as there was no social security back then. Anyway,
Cheers!
Finallllllly!!!!!! ?. I belonged to site of around 3000 teenagers that grew up in my town back in the 70’s and 80’s. The topic came up regarding sweets we used to eat. When I mentioned Tex bar , no-one knew what I was referring to. Similar to a Mars bar but nicer . I have looked online every now and then to no avail. Finally, someone has a pic of the bar I loved so much. Second to the Kooka bar but no less important. Yes I agree that the Kooka bar set the precedent for the now infamous Tim Tam. But Ohhh do I miss my tex bars. Someone bring them back !!!! ?
Tex bars were and are still my favorite. Every week at the pictures i would buy one or when we went on holidays the shop at the beach always had them. But alas when Nestles yes Nestles not the politically correct Nestlay bought out nearly all the others except Cadbury they decided to cull all sorts of our favorites. Scorched peanut bars were mums favs they are gone now. Green frogs and Mint Leaves last year got Axed. They now have a Tex Bar of sorts on sale but it has wafers in it the original Tex Never did
Traffic lights round toffee lollies came in red Amber and green. And cocktail fruits. Good because they lasted longer
I remember the traffic lights but started to think I was imagining them as looked for years but never found them. Until today, yes today. Melba’s chocolates in SA still makes them.
I still miss Tex Bars. There is no equivalent these days.
I still miss them too. Nobody knows what I am talking about when I mention them.
Tex bar there was no flavor like it and the size of the white knights peppermint and spearmint and I think that they had a musk one also polly waffles were a meal
Does anyone remember Mexican jumping beans
I loved nigger blocks. I believe they were 8 for a penny when I was at school. At no time did I associate them with anything other than my favourite lollie which I must add gave me black teeth. But I could get a brown bag full for sixpence.
I remember all the lollies and chocolate bars back in the sixties and seventies.
The lollies these days r nothing compared to back then. My favourite were nigger blocks Choo Choo bars, Space bars like the Choo Choo bar but brown yummy 😋 the good old days!
Wish they would bring them back.
Thanks for the post I was flooded with great memories.
Oh yes Bronwyn Camilleri – Nigger Blocks!! And Choo Choo Bars. And Spuds. And Fantales. Used to love playing “who am I” with the wrappers. And now I have to search markets etc for Spearmint Leaves (Stansbury market in SA have the best Spearmint Leaves) and I miss my green frogs soooo very much. I don’t understand companies disposing of life long favourites and then someone starts importing garbage like Oreos. Many years ago my top drawer at work was full of my favourite flavours of Life Savours – you could buy whole rolls of individual flavours – lime was my fave, and spearmint, and musk. Smyths Confectionary used to make something called a Toffee Crunch, looked like little pillows, came in bags in the lolly section of the supermarket and when I was a little girl you could go into Coles and buy them lose by weight. I really miss my little toffee pillows. And please bring back the Polly Waffle!!!!!!!!
Hi you all, I have read all your comments but does any one know what happened to Tandy’s. I worked as a tray boy for 5 years from the age of 11 to 16, the cinemas were: The Theatre Royal, Majestic, Civic, Mayfair and the York and they were all serviced by Tandy’s confectionary and chocolate. I worked there from 1951 to 1956.Has any one any photos of the old theatres. I was not one that had a camera and have no photos of that era.
18th post from top has this to say is that what you wanted?
Karen September 22, 2016 at 4:17 pm #
“I work at the WEA centre, 223 Angas Street, Adelaide and it was once the Tandy factory!
Ironic that WEA offers a course in Belgian Truffle Making.”
FRIDAY WAS DADS PAY DAY, HOME HE’D COME WITH A SHILLINGS WORTH OF MIXED LOLLIES, A WHITE BAG FILLED TO THE TOP.
THEY WENT ON THE TOP OF THE FRIDGE AND WE HAD TO ASK FOR ONE.
Hi everyone, I agree with you all, sweets and lollies just have no individual taste any more. As I got older I loved LLC,s and SOS,s does anyone remember them an acquired taste but I loved them. Also remember a lollie on a stick striped red and green and pink on the inside but I can’t remember what they were called.
Maz, you are thinking of Rosy Apples!
Yes Rosy Apples, I loved them. LLC and SOS one of my favorites as well. White Knights and Scorched peanut bars and original Whip bar.
Were LLC ‘s a round aniseed lolly in a packet similar to lifesavers? I have been trying to see if you can get them from anywhere
I remember when you could buy 50c worth of lollies n 2c would get you 3 lollies so 50 cents worth was a lot of lollies back then. You known those where the good old days when people talk, more and fun times come from warm laughter not heaps of technology. I am so glad I experienced that in my life it made a better person.
No one has mentioned one of my favourites ‘MILKY MAXMUM BAR’. Sooooooo much better and not as ‘sickly’ sweet as a Bounty. It’s a compressed bar of coconut covered in chocolate, about the same size as a Peppermint Crisp.
Why do they stop making our most loved sweets
ZACs, from the ‘Sixties.
Peppermint & caramel.
Wrapped in foil.
Were they biscuits or confectionary? And, who made them?
No photos seem to exist.
I wondered if Tex Bars are still made
Like Carolyn, I hanker for a Tex Bar. Long gone unfortunately and nothing remotely like them now. Someone suggested that a Mars Bar is a close equivalent. They obviously have a poor memory. The only similarity is that they are both chocolate coated.
Who remembers SOS lollies they were red and hard
Looking for a “GIGGLE”
I was 7 years old when we moved into a country fruit and veg/general store which had aside from packet lollies, an amazing lolly cabinet…
Yes remember well what you could get for 10c back in the early 70’s, however I seemed to always get a bigger bag full. There were sherbet bombs, sherbet fountains, bellboy and black cat bubble-gum, metro gum, smarties, choc drops, caramel swirls, freckles, aniseed blocks, bullets, chicos, sherbies, red and green frogs, cobbers, clinkers, jaffas, fizzos, cigars, candy sticks, false teeth, snakes peppermints, spearmint leaves, witchity grubs, pineapples, milk bottles, fruit tingles, jelly babies oranges and lemons, wow I could just keep going as I remember sometimes sneaking a handful per cent…..
The regular monthly arrival of the “Allens” truck was always my favourite day. The regular driver always had something new to try and of course he had a box of broken packets to hand out.
So many of the favourites are long gone and ALAS the inhalation of sweet treats as a boy and up until recently, finally took its toll with a top set of false teeth and a doctors instruction to get off the sugar..
Lesson learned over a long time indeed but by crikey I could list hundreds of favourites, consumed in copious amounts.
I have been looking for information about a choc/marshamallow bar on the net to assist my search for its TV commercial which my brother and his school class were in.
The Choc coated Marshmallow bar was called “GIGGLE” Its centre was white marshmallow with either a Nought or Cross running right through it.
Hoping someone took the time to read my banter above and might remember the choc/marshallow bar and possibly who made it.
Thanks for reading..
I am so happy that so many people LOVE Tex Bars. I was starting to think that were a figment of my imagination because nobody that I speak to has ever heard of them and they were my very favourite. It’s hard enough to try to describe the taste and unique texture without everyone screwing up their faces and looking at me like I’ve come from another planet.
Maybe if they can resurrect the Polly Waffle they can do the same with the Tex Bar – I live in hope…….