Sunday 20 May 2012

Life as a Sweet Shop


As an introverted and somewhat solemn child, I placed my thoughts in an imaginary world where I owned my own sweet shop full of exquisitely carved sugar babies dressed in rice paper clothes that adorned sugar canes, or lived inside candy cottages.  I had so much pleasure in planning how my shop would look.  It would be filled to the brim with exciting sweets and candy and be a confectioner’s delight!

When I was young and imagining being rich I used think of money in terms of how many sweets I could buy!  I used to picture boxes full of refreshers, white chocolate mice, red and black liquorice bootlaces, black jacks and fruit salad, candy shrimps, Spanish tobacco, flying saucers etc., piled from floor to ceiling.

As an adult, when I look back at my childhood and my simplistic take on life it is as though I never left that sweet shop.  I stand in the middle of the shop not knowing which choices to make.  Do I buy lots of cheaper sweets and have a whole paper bag of sugary goodness or do I just have one or two really special chocolates made with the finest ingredients?   Do I go for what is in my reach or do I ask for the special toffee in the jar at the back of the counter?  Do I choose the familiar such as sherbet pips or do I take a chance on the gob stoppers and giant pear drops that I am forbidden to eat in case of choking on them?

I think it is a question of balance.  Not many people can have it all.  I think there are days when the bargain bag of instant gratification will suffice and other days the artisan chocolate will be one to savour.

As for the giant pear drops?  I am up for eating the ‘forbidden fruit’ but only if they are crushed up first.  I am not that much of a risk taker to eat them whole!

12 comments:

  1. I love the fact you speak into metaphors!
    x

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  2. Do you know Simone I wasn't allowed gob stoppers either, in case I choked!! That used to really annoy me!
    Vivienne x

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  3. My parents were obviously not at all concerned about my life as I was not denied gob-stoppers unless from lack of money!

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  4. you are right to beware of the 'forbidden fruit' i was rushed to accident and emergency as a child due to having a boiled sweet lodged in my throat. i was also taken there as a toddler after eating pebbles on brighton beach and another time i swallowed a sixpence. on other occasions i had a things stuck inside my ears - once a secret message (written in code) and once a spider!(the only mishap of this sort that was not of my own doing). i think these instances along with many other incidents that occured during my childhood probably qualified me as the risk taking sort ;)
    simone, i was absolutely thrilled when i saw your image of all those wonderful confections and began to reminisce over my favourites right away :) it is many, many years since i have had a sherbert fountain! or a packet of parma violets.
    a fabulous post, makes one think doesn't it? about how much and how little we change in the course of our lives and how we deal with the choises that arise.
    you have a very lovely imagination. i like the sound of sugar babies dressed in rice paper clothes. just think what wonderful childrens stories you could write!

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  5. What a lovely post Simone. You always make me think!
    A good trip down memory lane ... I would go for cheap sweets over expensive chocolate any day. I got a pear drop stuck in my throat once, and my dad had to to thump me hard to stop me choking. I've never eaten one since.
    xxx

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  6. my brother stuck jelly tots up his nose when he was a toddler and they had to sit him infront of a fire so they would melt! Ha, serves him right!!!
    xxx

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  7. Great post, Simone. Choices, choices. We all do have so many, don't we. And it's lovely thinking about candy shops (your sweets seem much more exotic and fun than the ones in America).

    Hope you had a good weekend and that your garden is doing well! Those flowers in your last post are so beautiful! They'd make a gorgeous painting!

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  8. I wasn't allowed gobstoppers for the fear of chocking. This is a lovely post, sugar babies dressed in rice paper sounds a delight, I didn't like Jelly Babies or Dolly Mixtures not sure why. Sherbert Fountains are not the same they now have a plastic stopper instead of the liquorice sticking out, and the smartie tube does not have the plastic lid with the letter of the alphabet on anymore and the box is hexagonal - something to do with health and safety................but that is whole another story.
    Julie xxxxxxxx

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  9. A sweet shop is a great metaphor for life! I remember when I was a child we lived in quite a small village and the publican's wife used to sell sweets from the living quarters at the side of the pub We used to knock on the door and buy liquorice sticks and sherbert dabs from her. I also remember when I visited my grandma she would walk me to a little tin shack just under a bridge near some allotments where she would buy me black jacks and penny chews in a cone shaped paper bag:)

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  10. What a thought-provoking post! I suffer sometimes, as you do, from the overwhelming choices we are faced with each day.

    But maybe we should be grateful that we have those choices - that we can choose what food we eat, what we wear or have in our homes or even what we do with our lives. There are many people on this planet who do not have any choice.

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  11. Most of these candies are unfamiliar to me, but I imagine they are yummy!! When I was a child, candy was forbidden in our house, but my grandfather always had a jar filled with m&m's and filled our pockets with them when we visited. We had to be careful not to have them rustle together and make noise when my dad was nearby!
    xx

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  12. Loved the sweetie picture, they are so pretty piled up like that! As a child I loved the colours of sweets as well as the taste! (Still do too).
    Hope you are having a happy week, Simone.
    Helen x

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