That is an impressive list of childhood treats. I wrote about my childhood treats here and here

I was egged on to write a post about how to iron a shirt As you say it is not always easy to put into words the tasks and chores we do automatically every other day.

We had penny candy at Harvey’s dimestore. I was fascinated by the little bags of roasted cashews sold in a warm, lit glassed-in display much like popcorn. Each bag had money in it, between 2 cents and a dollar, wrapped in foil. So it was a little gamble, buying your bag of toasty, salty cashews and unwrapping the foil to see what you’d gotten.

We had: starlight mints, butter mints, brick bats, Mary Janes, mothballs, and some wonderful pastel waxy discs that would melt mintily in your mouth. Razzles and Lik-m-aid, wax lips, wax bottles, Boston baked beans, candy cigarettes, chocolate cigarettes, bubble gum cigars (hmm…), Necco wafers, Smarties, Bit-o-Honeys, root beer barrels, blue mints, butterscotch disks, Chuckles, Chiclets, circus peanuts, strawberry laces, coconut Neapolitans, candy lipsticks, and whistle pops. Not much of a licorice culture, outside of Good’n'Plenty candies.

I think you need to do a post just on ironing if you haven’t already. :^)

A little back ground to Pastis take a look here.

“Ironing??? What’s that???” - that is something I do to keep me from boredom!

For anyone trying Pastis for the first time always add water before ice, as ice would make anéthol crystallise.

Grannymar, thanks for reminding me of the romance of that tiny corner shop on my way to school, selling only sweets and cigarettes. I loved just looking at all those colourful jars. Unlike you we didn’t have to buy by weight, only by solvency. So the smallest coin bought me either five lengths (or one spiral) of liquorice heaven.

U

PS I should add that nowadays I get the same effect from the taste of Pastis.

I like some toffee to chew on when I am ironing and only eat chocolate (dark) for a treat. I never eat milk or white chocolate.