For years as a kid I would have cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off that my dad would make the night before. They were always kind of soggy by the time I ate them, unsurprisingly, and the flavour was so bland, although my dad always added a little salt to them, which as an adult I now realise was an unnecessary but kind touch that a child would never appreciate. At 8 or 9 years old that's what I wanted though, I hated anything with strong or unfamiliar flavours (which I think is quite common at that age). I upgraded to peanut butter sandwiches when I was a little older, with a pepperami or a triangle of dairylea n the side. Then a penguin bar or a club bar. I think I had a spider-man or superman lunchbox, and definitely had a power rangers one. They have a very particular smell, too, a sweet yeasty tang from he encased bread, mixed with a sharp note from whatever side thing had been packed in, and the slight chemical scent of the plastic. In the end that smell mixed up to make everything in the lunch box taste faintly of each other, including the chocolate. It's a smell I can recall very readily even now. I was always a bit jealous of my friend who would have sausage rolls, muffins, more interesting sandwiches.
A pretty terrible lunch all told, but better than what the school was serving. I think part of the appeal was the routine of it, knowing what you were going to have rather than running the gauntlet of the dinner ladies' proclivities.
I have fonder and stronger memories of the after school corner-shop trip though. Having sourced 30p somehow, from some chore or found in a pocket or taken 2p at a time from the change pile. Deciding how it was going to be spent, thinking about it before the end of school, making plans and combinations which all fell apart because something was out of stock. 10p tomato toms was probably my favourite (unless your pack was ruined by crunching into an un-puffed one, ugh), the intense sweet vinegar tang of the ketchup dust which was so short lived, giving way to a savoury follow-through as the maize puff dissolved on your tongue. You don't get many in a pack so each one should be savourted. Space raiders or chipsticks would be good alternatives if the toms stock was depleted, but neither is as good.
Then always trying to get the most volume of penny sweets, carefully weighing up whether it was worth sacrificing quantity and variety for taste - yes the big marshmallow meant more sweet to eat, but the long strawberry fizzy straw tastes way better. Perhaps splashing out sometimes to get the 2p sugarred coke bottles instead of the unsugared 1p version or a dib dab. Or when you had somehow found a pound coin, getting a chocolate bar as well. The Cabury Secret bar was my favourite, a completely ludicrous bar of chocolate, spun into a sort of oblong basket in whispery strands, holding a precious cargo of chocolate mousse inside. I'm not surprised it doesn't exist any more, it must have been hell to produce.
Occasionally I'd have enough for a can of drink, an apple tango or maybe a fizzy vimto. Then on a really hot day instead it would be an ice pop or if you had got some rare windfall, a cornetto. I used to go to the same shop always with my best friend, so between us we could cover a lot of options. Sometimes we would forgo a few days of treats to save up for some collectible - packs football stickers mostly but also passing fads like pogs or go-gos or marbles.
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