I remembered recently how much I liked sweet packaging back in the day. One of my favourite designs was Spanish Gold, the red waxy paper wrap for sweet tobacco. Made by Barratts it was a classic and simple design with a Spanish Galleon with the Crusader cross. I really liked it and still do.
Here's one I saw on Pinterest.
Have you a favourite sweet wrapper readers?
With debates about smoking bans and stopping the sale of disposable vapes in the air my mind wandered back to my own smokes.
Both my parents smoked. After fighting in WWII they did everything. Smoked, drank, worked hard and had lots of babies, two of whom still smoke in the 70's.
For some odd reason it never appealed to me growing up in smoke-filled Preston. I can sum up my own smoking 'career' as 1 Gitane [French?], 1 black Sobrane [Russian?] and 1 herbal cigarette [Boots?], all puffed as a teenager in the 1970's and not an experience I enjoyed at all, although I always liked the packaging and artwork.
Much more to my taste were the chocolate cigarettes of my earlier youth, which I bought for pence in the local penny shop near Sacred Heart school. I don't think you ate the paper and I'm pretty sure they were always in packets like these I found on the net.
The chocolate was quite delicious, sort of powdery, about halfway between Cadburys and cooking chocolate. Its unlikely you can get them anymore given the current climate but I was wrong about Old Jamaica so who knows.
What's for certain,is that on the Continent you can get chewing gum cigarettes for kids still. When we were in Germany I saw stacks of them in sweet aisles. I suppose I was a bit shocked really but then again I ate tons of chocolate cigarettes and didn't make the leap to childhood smoking. Anyhow here's a large assortment currently on Amazon de. I assume the 'tricks' mentioned is a blowable cloud of icing sugar or something like that, certainly a step too far. What do you think?
As a kid there were smoking gags around back then. I got mine from Ellisdons in Liverpool but I reckon jokes and tricks were available on racks most everywhere, especially at the seaside.
The two I recall the most were a smoking monkey [not a pleasant thought now], which puffed special roll-ups, which gave off intermittent smoke and also a more robust card cigarette which sort of glowed at the end when you took a drag. That's how I remember it anyway!
Here's a the smoking monkey just as I remember it, this one seen on sale online.
Do any of these light any fires for you readers?
