Which ones were your favourites?
School dinners in the 80s were a grim affair at best. The majority of the time we didn’t even know what we were being served! So instead, most of us found better uses for that £1 note. This usually meant a daily trip to the local newsagents! We spent our time in here and chose wisely with what money we had.
Here are 30 items we all bought from the local newsagents after school. Whether this was sweets, or we saved up for a for days for something a little bit more special.
1. Golden Wonder Crisps
Before Walkers ruled the roost on the back of Gary Lineker’s adverts was Golden Wonder. These crisps were truly something special. These were the only proper crisps to have in the days when Salt & Vinegar came in blue bags, and Cheese & Onion were green! Walkers managed to switch that colouring back around!
2. Texan bars
“A man’s gotta chew what a man’s gotta chew”. Who remembers these delicious bars? These were truly delicious. This was a belting advert, but the chocolate bar was even better! Enough said!
3. Smash Hits
Back then, this was the only way to work out what all your favourite song’s lyrics were! This helped you stop embarrassing yourself by singing the wrong ones – something we all did at some point! How else did you know Mr Mister were singing about someone called “Kyrie Eleison” and not telling you to “Carry a laser”?
4. Top Deck
Coke was good, TAB was awful, Dandelion & Burdock was the best, and Top Deck Shandy meant you could pretend to be drinking beer. Be honest how many of you remember drinking this? Did anyone else pretend to get drunk off this? I am sure we spent a large bit of our childhood thinking this could get us drunk. I also used to sneak this into school.. but they always found it and took it off us!
5. Monster Munch
The original 80s Roast Beef flavour is still the best crisp ever made, with second place going to the Pickled Onion ones. Which flavour was your favourite? I mean, we definitely couldn’t pick because they were all ridiculously delicious.
6. Wham Bars
10p bought you a whole chunk of chewy sherbet to keep you going through double Maths. Although, we had to be super sneaky about eating them during school time. The amount of these that got taken off us was ridiculous. But, that didn’t stop us buying these bars. It was like we were addicted to them! We simply couldn’t get enough.. and for such a cheap price, why should we stop!
7. Spangles
The fizzy pop flavoured boiled sweet that was responsible for most kids’ fillings. But, that didn’t stop us devouring a whole packet in one go. Orangeade ones were the best. You really couldn’t have a packet of these to yourself because as soon as someone saw you had them, they wanted one.
8. Bubblys
The only gum that was any good for blowing bubbles with until Hubba Bubba came along, and only 2p each as well. These were delicious.. but sadly (like most bits of chewing gum) the taste went ridiculously quickly!
9. Pot Noodles
Sixth form common rooms meant access to a kettle, so the Beef & Tomato Pot Noodle came into its own as a proper foodstuff, and introduced many of us to the joys of cooking for the first time. Pouring boiling water up into the pot to the correct level counts as cooking, alright? Either way, the result was DELICIOUS.
10. Fags
Who needed food, when ciggies made you look cool and tough? 10 Embassy Filter (the non-Kingsize ones) were the fags that ruled at my school, although the new Superkings gave you more to share with your mates. At 63 1/2p for 10 in 1983, and a book of matches another 1/2p on top, you could usually afford some essential nourishment in the form of crisps as well.
11. Cola Cubes
We all know that deciding what you wanted from the sweet section of the newsagents was one of the biggest decisions you had to make. Cola Cubes were a classic and so many of us used to love them. The only downside was that they really cut the roof of your mouth.
12. Ladybird books
We all saved up when the next book was coming out. These books played a huge part in our childhood and we loved them so much. But, you really had to save up for a few lunchtimes if you wanted to be able to afford one of these books.
13. Wrigley’s Spearmint Chewing Gum
This was one of the main things that we bought from the Newsagents. We always needed some chewing gum to keep our mouth nice and fresh. What mattered the most was being discreet when you were opening one. Because, as soon as one person saw you had chewing gum then you ended up giving the whole packet away.
14. Pineapple Chunks
So, you either loved Cola Cubes or Pineapple Chunks. You always had a favourite out of the two. Again, just like the cola cubes, these pineapple chunks really cut the roof of your mouth if you had them in excess. But, you really couldn’t keep your distance when they tasted so good and fit perfectly in your blazer pocket.
15. Black Jacks
We all know that every single person had a ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’ opinion towards these sweets. They definitely were an acquired taste, but if you liked these then you would really stock up on them. So delicious! Did you like them?
16. Quatro Drink
We all remember this. This used to be SO addictive when we were younger. We genuinely couldn’t get enough of this! Who wants some now? I remember this being quite similar to Lilt, wasn’t it? Still amazingly delicious though! Bring this back!
17. Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles
These will forever be some of the most popular sweets ever. They used to last a lifetime and we loved them a ridiculous amount. Which flavour was your favourite? You hated it when you had about three of the same flavour in a row!!
18. Cherry Lips
This was another classic. Some people loved these… but a lot of us hated these. Do you not think they tasted a lot like soap? I think the reason people got these was because you got so many because they were so small. So, of course, they lasted a lot longer!
19. Super mousse
This was one SPECIAL treat. We were all completely obsessed with this when we were younger. I loved it so much, I used to spend the majority of my pocket money on it each week. The only reason we bought this was because our parent’s rarely bought it from the supermarket. So, if you could buy it for yourself, then you did do.
20. Garbage Pail Kids
There wasn’t a more collectable item than the Garbage Pail Kids cards. We all spent a lot of money saving up and getting the different ones. There was nothing better than keeping these in pristine condition and showing them off in your folder. We took REALLY good care of these. They were a spin-off from Cabbage Patch Kids!
21. Beano
This was a comic that we used to be obsessed with when we were younger. We always saved up our pennies so we could buy this. We never failed to purchase an issue as kids. The best part was reading this and laughing with all your friends. Some of us have still kept our issues of these from when we were kids! This comic will forever stay in our hearts.
22. Alphabet Sweets
We loved getting a bag of these sweets when we were younger purely because we could make loads of different words out of our sweets. What words did you used to make? We always tucked a little bag of sweets in our blazer pockets so we could be sneaky and eat them during our lessons. We must have such poor teeth with the amount of sweets we used to have!
23. Toffo
We all know that these are some of the most classic treats that we used to get back in the 70s and 80s. But, Toffo was DELICIOUS. If we were really struggling with what to get, then we would always opt for Toffo purely because it was a safe, delicious option.
24. Peanut Treets
If you liked peanuts (which not many of us did) then you would buy these. The good thing about buying these was that so few people liked them, which meant no-one really asked for one. However, they were always your mum’s favourites so she was sneaky and took them from you when you got home.
25. Chocarillo
We know that smoking looked really cool when we were younger, which meant that sweets and chocolate like these sold really well. I used to sell packs of these bad boys at school! When we were kids we thought that it actually looked like we were smoking when we had these. It is so bad that smoking used to be promoted
26. Fruit Salad sweets
These were SO delicious. You could never just have one of these… that was impossible. Instead, you had about five at each time. We couldn’t resist these. Did you prefer these or Black Jacks?!
27. Bouncy Balls
The one thing that we always bought was bouncy balls. We used to be obsessed with playing with these – especially at school. However, this always landed us in a lot of trouble. The reason we always had to buy these was because they always got lost or taken off us by teachers!
28. Piglet Crisps
These crisps were just completely delicious. There was honestly nothing better than getting a packet of crisps. Getting back from school sitting in front of the TV and eating these was the life. These were perfect because they were just the right amount of food to put you on until tea time!
29. Jelly Tots
Jelly Tots will forever be a classic packet of sweets that we will always love. It was rare that we got these, but when we did we cherished every moment. These sweets were truly incredible. Although the packaging has changed, the delicious taste just hasn’t!
30. Tudor Crisps
We all know that Tudor Crisps were one of our favourite of all time.. which flavour was the best in your opinion? I loved the fact that they had a gammon flavoured packet of crisps. Bring these back!! I think everyone would have them if they were brought back!
