Saturday, August 23, 2008

Nostalgic Saturday

When I was growing up, Friday night was fish and chip night. Yes this was the days before McDonalds and Pizza Hut. As well a my piece of fish and serve of chips I could have a drink.

Usually I chose milk (from a carton, not from the dairy like the rest of our milk lol) but every now and then I chose a soft drink called "Candy". Candy was a flourescent pink color and the can (the half sized cans - yes you had a choice of little or regular in those days - and it was steel with a ring top) was striped with hot pink, silver and musk pink lines about 2 mm wide. I can't really remember what it tasted like - I guess a sweeter (if possible) creaming soda.

Yes these were the days where for 1 cent you got three to five lollies (candies to the international reader). My 20 cents pocket money went a long way in those days (5 cents on candy, 15 cents for other things).

These were the days when Peter's Drumstick sold for a dollar - can you imagine that! No one I knew (adults or children) could imagine anyone spending a dollar on an icecream and we were sure it was the end of the Drumstick forever!

So Candy is now long gone (I don't know anyone who even remembers it), a can of soft-drink is now the smaller size - buddy bottles rule, lollies generally come pre-packaged - or at best you have three or four jars to pick from (not the 20+ that I was used to) and 5 cents doesn't feed you for a week, an icecream for a dollar is a bargain, and the Drumstick is made by multi-national Nestle.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

We used to have fish and chips on Fridays too :) McDonalds was around when I was a kid, but it was not so popular, and at every other street corner. I remember (early 70s) when you could get a large bag of candy for a dollar, and a bag of chips for 25 cents! I posted a Nostalgic Saturday too. If you are not busy stop by :)

Unknown said...

great post MG, we could never afford a drumstick when i was growing up, matter of fact i can't remember the last time i had one either!we used to buy the chips and dad would cook the fish, great memories, thanks for sharing xo

Anonymous said...

must be a regional thing, we had candy in qld too. i remember that we used to have kfc about twice a year and that we drove about 15klm to get it. Nairbe

Unknown said...

Yah, I wasn't dreaming - Candy did exist :-)

I wonder how many times a year the "average" family would have kfc these days?

pita-woman said...

*Sounds like your "candy" drink is similar to my beloved Big Red.
*Love fish and chips! I could eat them several times a week... to heck with saving it for Friday nights!
*KFC... famous for chicken, yet when I go there (not very often), I rarely get chicken, but typically get their mashed potatoes, cole slaw & biscuits.

Anonymous said...

I found your blog by doing a net search on the soft drink "Candy". Last week I was reminiscing with a friend about this drink from our childhood (in Victoria); the colour and shape of the can being imprinted on my memory as something special, though like you I can't remember the taste. I also seem to remember there was another flavour (cola maybe?) made by the same maker and in the same shaped can, yet not as memorable to me as a child because the can was plainer. It is now my lifes mission to track down and own one of those old Candy cans!!!!