'Addictive' Sweets?

You can still buy sweeties cigarettes. When i was a child you could buy fake cigs which looked realistic and appeared to be lit. My friend walked into her house with one in her mouth. Her mother went crazy and knocked my friend to the floor, hitting her and screaming at her. It was such a shock to me to see her mother act like that. The mother was a chain smoker, but still that was an over reaction.

Re the Spanish wood. As a child we used to call licorice spanish. I have no idea why though, does anyone know?

My sister and I loved sweet cigarettes and leaned to suck the end until sticky then stick it to our lower lip like old men did with real cigarettes. Imagine my mother's shame when we, as members of the Sunday School filed into church from behind the altar with our 'cigarettes' dangling from our bottom lips.

I don't like sweets now - apart from fudge and I tried tablet once but will have to resist buying any more (delicious).

Yes, I had all these ciggy sweets as a child and don’t smoke but do love chocolate. But I must agree with Paddyann this time - tablet is irresistible. I try not to make it very often!
We once caught small son sticking his finger in granny’s sherry glass and licking it - he doesn’t have a drink problem.

Yup, I had those sweet cigarettes and loads of other sweet things. I smoked from teenage till 26, when I stopped. But I now hate all sweet things, except for the odd square of dark chocolate, so it can have the opposite effect!

Funnily enough ,we were looking in an old fashioned sweet shop the other day and they had the sweet tobacco. Coconut strips covered in chocolate. I was tempted.

Christmas stockings came with an orange, sweet cigarettes and a chocolate pipe, but I needn't have worried about becoming addicted to the tipple at grandma's, as it was QC British sherry, ugh

I used to eat those sweet cigarettes too - and the cigars but I managed to give them up which is just as well as I ended up with too many fillings in my teeth!

ribena (you can get a sugar free version now
Not that disgusting aspartame - I'd rather mine had a teaspoon of sugar than any of that awful stuff.

I can remember when DN quietly crept around one Christmas afternoon when the adults were half asleep, hoovering up the dregs of everyone's port and sherry. She must have been about 7 at the time. We suddenly realised when we heard giggling.
She likes a glass of wine now but has never over-indulged.

I too remember the chocolate smoker's selection box at Christmas. I always wanted the pipe because Dad smoked one. Nobody knew about the dangers of passive smoking in those days. I don't remember smoke in the house being a problem but the car was another thing. I'm sure it contributed to motion sickness. It makes me feel queasy thinking about it.

One thing I always remember is Dad saying that the crews of Sunderland flying boats were the only ones allowed to smoke while on missions because they had to endure some seriously cold temperatures. Not sure how a lone cigarette could warm you up but apparently the wireless operator always smoked a pipe because he had to send Morse code and needed to keep his fingers warm.

No wonder so many died of lung cancer in later years.

I'd be more worried about the wine glass than what was in it... I never gave my two AC thin glasses when they were young, as I was always afraid that they'd take a bite at the rim (as they did with their plastic cups) and get a mouthful of glass..!
I too remember the sweet cigarettes - I didn't like the taste of them, and have never had the slightest desire to try the real thing, as I grew up in a house where my DF & DGF smoked heavily (passive smoking is probably why I've developed asthma in adulthood..!) and I used to lie in bed in the mornings listening to them hack and cough and thinking, 'I'm NEVER being like that..!!'

I think observing mum and others around tempt children to drink alcohol far more than being allowed their normal drink in a sherry or similar glass. Sweet tobacco can still be found online with a company called A Quarter Of - can't tell you if it tastes the same though. I loved the original, it was a real treat for dad to buy me some!

Also loved spanish wood as a child. Now in my seventies bought some from a shop in Covent Garden - disgusting - how tastes change.

Your dd would despair of me then as at around 6 my children were allowed a small amount of white wine topped up with soda at Christmas/birthdays etc. It was treated as a special treat and neither have grown up to drink much. My ds did the usual out with mates clubbing and drinking in late teens but by early 20s didn't enjoy it any more and dd never been much of a drinker. Ashe a child I was allowed a small sherry at times of celebration and although partied in my early 20s haven't drunk since my 30s when I had kids and now in my 60s don't like it much except for the odd baileys at Christmas. I think as others have said it isore to do with peer pressure and we seem to read too much into things these days. Your gc probably didn't even register alcohol just having a nice time with gd. Does she think pkaying with dolls will make her rush out and get pregnant? Parents worry too much about too much rather than enjoy the way their children play and think

My brother always got a smoker’s set, which contained chocolate pipe, cigars, cigarettes, and an ashtray!

And, talking of things in familiar containers, my father’s aunt was always known to be very ‘ perjink’ ( think Hyacinth Bucket!) I remember their mirth when she was unobserved and sneaked a slug from a lemonade bottle in their kitchen.
It was turpentine her husband had borrowed from a neighbour.

Brought back childhood memories but never succumbed to the real thing unlike many of my friends.

I remember the sweet cigarettes, liquorice pipes and chocolate smokers sets too and seriously can't believe they made anyone take up smoking, any more than the tiny sherry glass of ribena (you can get a sugar free version now) will lead to a life of heavy drinking! On the contrary, young people always find 'forbidden fruit' more desirable I think.

I remember all those sweets, bar the liquorice root, loved them all as a child. I think allowing kids to play at ‘drinking alcohol’ is sensible as it teaches moderation and takes away the mystery and taboo..... in France kids get watered wine....so Ribena in a wine glass seems pretty tame! My parents always allowed me a tiny glass of beer.....aged 5! And as I got older weak Dubonet and lemonade....far from turning me into an alcoholic....it taught me to drink in moderation.....and I still do! My friends parents were stricter and they were very silly with alcohol as soon as they were old enough to drink legally. We had kids wine and champagne.....fruit drinks....bought in France for my two and they are both sensible drinkers. Ok both I and they have overdone it occasionally...who hasn’t? But it’s the exception not the rule!

At Christmas they did a chocolate smokers selection box with pipe etc!

Paddy ann. I agree completely about tablet!

I just got addicted to sweets. I've never smoked though.

I use to buy fake cigarettes as a child, I thought it was fun to see adult reaction. However, I have never had the desire to smoke the real thing.

Addictive?
Overthinking!

I was born in 54 ,rationing wasn't long stopped.The man in our corner shop used to keep all my favourites for me from I was about 9 months ,or so I'm told.I had sweetie cigarettes every day and liquorice comfits ,I've never even tried a real cigarette and I'm not a sweet lover at all.Except for tablet.If I make it for the GC I have to give them the whole batch away with them or I'd eat it myself

You can still get the cigarettes, they are called candy canes and come in a pack of 4 or 5 boxes from the supermarket. Not as good though, don’t have the red tip, and they just taste different. My brothers and I would have them on a frosty morning, so when you breathed out it looked like smoke !.

We gave our children “champagne “, on special occasions, it was fizzy grape juice I use to get from the health shop, it had a fancy label, and a wired cork, so they were really happy,