The sweets you could buy with the change in your pocket

You went in with whatever was in your pocket, and you came out with a paper bag. That was the whole transaction. No card, no queue, no self-service till telling you there was an unexpected item in the bagging area.

The bag itself was part of it. White paper, twisted at the corners, and slowly going translucent where the sugar had got at it. If you had run all the way there you could feel it going soft in your hand.

What was actually in the bag

Spangles, obviously — and the arguments about whether the Old English ones were a treat or a punishment have never really been settled. Sherbet Fountains with the liquorice tube that went soggy about four seconds in. Anglo Bubbly with the little cartoon inside the wrapper. Black Jacks and Fruit Salads, four for a penny, which meant you did serious arithmetic at the counter.

Flying Saucers, which were mostly air and always slightly disappointing but you bought them anyway. Aniseed balls that changed colour as you went, so you kept taking them out to check. Kola Kubes that took the roof off your mouth. Sweet cigarettes, with the red-tipped end, which nobody thought twice about.

The shop mattered as much as the sweets

It was usually one shop, on one corner, run by one person who knew exactly how old you were and whether you should be in there. Jars on shelves behind the counter, a set of brass scales, and a quarter of something weighed out in front of you while you watched.

That is the bit that has genuinely gone. Not the sweets — a fair few of them are still going, or have been brought back by companies who know exactly what they are doing. What has gone is being eleven, with fourpence, and the whole afternoon in front of you.

The ones that never came back

Spangles went in the eighties. Texan bars, Bar Six, Amazin' Raisin, Aztec, Pacers with the green stripes. Every so often one gets a limited revival and everybody buys it once, agrees it isn't quite the same, and goes back to whatever they buy now.

It probably is the same, mind. It's us that's different.