I think window shopping counts as found items, don’t you? When I work in town once a month, I sometimes have a little time spare on the route back through to school pick up.
It was mild today. Mild enough to decide to get off the bus early, walk a bit, then get on another bus to take me on up to school. So I took in Leith Walk in all its splendour – the long road that connects central Edinburgh with the port of Leith.
I didn’t do the whole of the Walk. Just a bit here and there. And I came across a rather lovely looking sweet shop, the name of which I wasn’t able to remember. Because I was too taken up with the names of the sweets.
Words certainly count as found items, as far as I’m concerned. And I had never come across the names of some of these sweets before. Toffee Doddles? Tiny Tatties? Odd Fellows? I was entranced.
Learning about new names of sweets made me think of Roald Dahl. There’s plenty of sweets, of course, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – and in The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (not as well known as some Dahl, but still lots of fun).
What I didn’t know until more recently was just how much Dahl loved sweets – there’s a whole focus on them in the first part of his autobiography, Boy. He even got to test chocolate for Cadbury’s, as did his classmates – can you imagine schools permitting that now?
But I think that Dahl would have made it a mission to memorise as many types of sweets as possible. I only managed three new ones (and a fourth which is not yet on the tip of the tongue, but half way back. That’s where you only have an inkling of part of it.).
I think the shop counts as a further found item, because I had no idea it was there. Edinburgh has been adding sweets boutiques over the last few years – the name seems fitting, not just for the potential to throw in a rhyme, but because they are a bit more upmarket.
Dahl would have recognised your regular sweet shop, with rows of jars of sweets, and others in view on the counter. But these shops want to sell not just to the school child, but the grownup who remembers blowing their pocket money on sweets, and still wants to now.
At least a bit.
Nostalgia is a big business in confectionery sales, at least in the UK. It brought back a chocolate bar that had been out of production, and led to the revival of Creamola Foam (one of my holiday favourites).
And it has stocked the shelves of these shops which sell the sweets of your youth. I can think of at least two other shops in Edinburgh already doing this, and I’m sure there’s more.
Sherbet Dib Dabs? Cola Bottles? Flying Saucers? Kola Kubes? These and many more are now within reach – even easier reach, in the age of internet sweet shopping.
But new sweets? Do we need them? Well, partly no (sensible adult) and partly yes (intrigued inner child). I didn’t buy any today, but I might just venture back.