Swizzels Matlow .... helping to make #sweetmemories since 1928

Ok so I'm not THAT old (no offence to anyone who is), but I have grown up with Swizzels Matlow
sweets and now my children are growing up with them too. So they may not be growing up with all the range I used to have but the old favourites still remain like drumsticks and love hearts alongside exciting new ranges like squashies.

It's great being a mum as you get to experience so many adventures and experiences with your kids, each one a memory that will remain, but memories are almost always attached to something else - a smell, a colour or even a sweet can take you back to a time and place that you might have forgotten about.




As a child we used to get 50p every week to go to the shop for and get a pic'n'mix(sometimes we'd pop in to see Nanna and Grandad on the way and they'd give us another 50p, then sweetie trips became a great time!). I loved the way the shelf was full of tubs and you could choose whatever you liked and put in a paper bag (normally plain white but occasionally the shop owner would get pink stripy ones). Carefully counting and double counting everything you put in so you didn't hear those immortal words 51p please ......... what would you put back?? (yup, there was no health and safety concerns when we were little over fingers in the tubs).

So what would go into mine?

There would be those yummy chocolate tools - not the great big ones you get nowadays, But even so they were expensive (3p each?) so you would savour every mouthful.

Then add a couple of white chocolate mice, and sometimes a strawberry one (though I wasn't as keen on them).





Next up a refresher bar, with its tangy lemon centre and some fruit salad bars.

Always one or 2 lollipops.

Fizzers, Parma violets or Love Hearts? That was a tough choice to make but you had to choose or sacrifice something else.

     

Fried eggs, cola bottles and juicy lips definitely made up the bulk of the bag with foam Shrimps and Bananas taking up the rest (how big were those bananas when we were small!).



Finally a lipstick (to make you feel grown up) - what was your favourite flavour? for me the strawberry always had the edge




Then, sweetie bags bulging you'd carefully carry them to the park where you would sit on the wall and eat the lot before playing on the swings and slides. Whilst you loved your friends being there to play a game of tag or football with you also resented the fact .... as they meant you were obliged to share some of your treats with them.

Double Dips or jumbo sherbet straws were an extra special treat, you couldn't afford these on a pic'n'mix trip without the extra money so these were saved especially for school holiday and pension days when Nanna was babysitting and used to bribe you to go to the shop with her.

We didn't get sweets every day so the weekly treat was something to really look forward to, not like now, my boys have some sort of sweet or chocolate most days as they are so affordable. But I do hate how hard it is to get a decent pic'n'mix. Sure you CAN get them in some stores but they change by weight not item, so it's just not the same, and the cost is astronomical. What we tend to do is get some huge bags of sweets, such as the Swizzels Spring Selection with it's mix of refreshers, lollies, fizzers, parma violets and love hearts or the bags of individual gums which then get put into one large tub to come out at playtime for a stay at home pic'n'mix experience.

Do you have a Sweet Memory you'd like to share? Swizzels Matlow would love to hear it. Simply head over to their page and either share a photo or a scrapbook entry with your sweet memory for a chance to win a weekly bag of sweets. I'd love to hear the memories too so leave a link up so I can find out.

They'd also love you to share the memories on Twitter, @SwizzelsMatlow with the hashtag #sweetmemories.

As if that's not enough excitement Swizzels Matlow have also given me a Spring Selection bag to give away.... enter using the rafflecopter below. You don't have to do everything but the more you do the more your chance to win :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Disclaimer: I received a Spring Selection tub from Swizzels for sharing my Sweet Memory and running a giveaway.  The post is entirely my own ideas and opinions.  Entries will be verified.