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15/10/2020 0 Comments

‘Christmas is coming
And with Boris getting fat,
Many people are asking
If there will still be an old man’s hat’

The short answer to that is that I think there still will be but, sadly, less old men this year and I fear that their hats may contain too many holes to contain pennies.

It’s been a really tough time for all of us, hasn’t it but, especially, for older people who remember when Dominic was a saint not a sinner, when dip dabs did not mean embezzlement, and when visors were only worn for riveting entertainment.

The older generation have generally worked hard all their lives and just want to enjoy themselves now – perhaps indulge in a few treats that they may have forsaken for so many years in order to give their children the very best of everything.

So many older ladies and gentlemen enter our sweet shop and are taken back to a time before children – when they were children themselves – and many still retain that sense of fun. For others, life and the virus threatening to end it, are clearly all-consuming. We worry with them because it could also spell the end of our little shop.

So, why don’t we all follow the advice of Wordsworth, in one of my favourite odes:

‘Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass; of glory in the flower,
We shall grieve not – rather find
Strength in what remains behind.’

Christmas is, of course, a great reminder that there is always hope, if only we can keep faith in a better future for all of us.

I’m pleased to say that Christmas has arrived at number 97a High Street as Worcester’s customers look to buy their presents and stocking-fillers earlier than ever, and the reindeer too have delivered our Christmas stock early. They will also deliver it to you if you wish (and have an ongoing supply of carrots).

Have a look at our Christmas brochure and you will see what we have to offer. As regular visitors to the shop will know, we have quite quickly become a gift shop that also sells sweets, as opposed to a sweet shop that also sells a few gifts from time to time.

Beautiful red Robin tins of vanilla fudge arrived this morning (though I understand that Batman is feeling a bit pushed out and currently taking legal advice from his lawyers in Gotham City on exclusion grounds).

We also have beautiful Snowmen and Stargazer tins of vanilla fudge, though I refer to the latter as ‘The John Lewis tin’ after their 2013 Christmas ‘Bear and the Hare’ advertising campaign which is, to date, their most successful ever.

I also consider Stargazer to be a track on my Rainbow Rising album from 1976 which I sometimes place on the turntable and play at maximum volume when Michelle is safely outside, working hard in the garden.

If it’s shortbread you’re after, then reindeer, sheep and Scottie dogs will be happy for you to take them for a walk.

Those loving chocolate in solid or liquid form are well served, while fudge and alcohol prove again what a fantastic combination they truly are.

We have jellies, toffee slabs and hampers of all your favourites which we hope will bring some respite from the cold winds from the north.

‘If you can’t afford the sweet things
Then a cheerful wave will do.
If you can’t find it within yourself to smile,
Then may God bless you.’

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8/10/2020 0 Comments

As some of you may remember from one of my earliest posts, I have been known to sometimes listen to Val Doonican records …

For those of you still reading, I’ll continue.

I suppose the word ‘records’ ages me somewhat as so much music is streamed these days isn't it? Or at least in CD format. I still love putting vinyl on the turntable though and being connected via the stylus to a completely different world.

A lot of our visitors and customers obviously feel the same way when walking into our little sweet shop as it takes them back to their own childhoods but also the stories told to them by parents or grandparents who have long since left the stage.

They tell us about money saved on bus fares and invested wisely on Refresher Chews. One lady bought £10 of them this morning and promised faithfully to ration her haul to one per week – as though we were going to check up on her!

Liquorice Catherine Wheels evoke a lot of memories that just keep coming around, and those seeking Liquorice Root Sticks are as thrilled to find them as the Tudors must have been when using them as toothbrushes.

It’s nice to share fond experiences of sweets that really remind us about people. It’s not nearly so much fun when people remind us that experiences can be equally sour.

On Saturday morning a fairly elderly man refused to come into the shop while a couple of other people were inside. We do monitor numbers closely at this time but usually consider that if the rule of six is prescribed by highly paid civil servants then it’s probably good enough for us. Anyway, he and a young boy only entered when the shop was completely empty.

He proceeded to tell us how we didn’t care about our customers; didn’t understand how long two metres actually was (again, we thought the suits in their London clubs had agreed to one metre being the standard, yet we still mark our floor out in quadrants of two square meters), and that, cheerfully, we would shortly be closed down.

He concluded his treatise by informing us in a commanding voice that he was a special advisor to an important government department in London, as though this would render us silent in breathless awe and servitude.

Michelle and I aren’t really like that. We pointed out quietly that although he observed merely a shop girl and boy in front of him, we did in fact have four degrees between us – including a Master’s degree each – were members of Mensa and spent many years living in and working for major national companies in London, before starting up our own businesses - therefore we did have some small idea of what we were doing ...

Even if he had listened for more than a second, our messages were quickly drowned out in his head by him then shouting at the top of his voice that he ‘didn’t want an argument.’ I can understand that; I’m quite sure that he wasn’t used to people arguing with him.

I actually felt very sorry for the little boy who turned out to be his son, and who just wanted a bag of Jelly Brains from the Pick n’ Mix counter.

Later the same day a middle-aged man and his wife bought one of our lovely new Big Wheel tins of salted caramel fudge. It was for his 97-year old father’s birthday. I was happy to explain how the other fairground tins in this collection – the Carousels and the Helter Skelter - contained shortbread or English toffees, but it was the Big Wheel he particularly wanted.

He explained, a little tearfully, that his father was blind and less concerned about the contents yet would love to run his hands over his birthday present to remind himself of the shape of a Big Wheel at the fairground he loved to visit when he was just a small boy. I wish I could have asked his father about the sweets he might also have enjoyed in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

As Val sang in his version of the classic:
“One little fellow is friends with the wind in the willows
All of them children and all are mysterious people”

Finally, I’ve had a lot of nice comments regarding last week’s blog about animals in the shop. Can I just update you to say that we have now added Scottie dogs and sheep in shortbread tin form; also, to reassure some readers, no animals were hurt in the making of this sweet life.

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1/10/2020 0 Comments

Napoleon once described us as a ‘nation of shopkeepers.’ I don’t think he was being complimentary about our lovely window displays or back wall of brightly coloured boiled sweets in jars.

I also don’t believe his observation was accurate – much like his view that snow in Russia would soon melt or that the ‘wondergrow’ Weetabix breakfasts he enjoyed each morning would eventually work.

My own view is that we are a nation of animal lovers. I was reflecting on this as we drove into Worcester today. The early autumnal sunshine was beaming through the once green leaves of the trees, preparing for change as is the rest of the country beyond the countryside.

Michelle reminded me that we are now in October and that we’d soon have to be watchful for deer suddenly appearing out of foggy mornings. When I eventually emerged from my personal foggy start, I was reminded of how many animals we offer shelter to in our sweet shop.

Micky’s Garden Party is a beautiful tin of mini chocolate chip shortbread and features a little cat and a dog having fun in a hammock! We also provide lovely vanilla fudge tins for those wanting to thank neighbours or friends for looking after their cat or dog. One gentleman visitor from Italy was most upset last summer when I couldn’t offer him a ‘thank you for looking after my goldfish’ variant. I wasn’t entirely sure if he was being ironic or deadly serious, but haven’t woken to a dead fish or horse’s head on my pillow lately so hopefully his pets survived his absence.

On the subject of horses, we have a very nice new tin of vanilla fudge featuring different types of equine beast. The Mustang is my favourite but probably only because it reminds me of a road trip from New York to Toronto many years ago …

We have farmyard boxes of chocolates and tins of jelly beans, featuring pigs and sheep and cows (try not to mention Moo Free to them though as it makes them unsettled) , and also a new forest tin which highlights foxes, badgers and, well, deer.

Pink Pigs and swine formerly known as Percy also feature in our pick n’ mix selection, and marshmallow pigs and cats often feature in our lollipop range. Sheep also flock to our shop in chocolate or lollipop form. Charles the Spaniel is a regular chocolate figure in these parts, as are hedgehogs and, inevitably, cats, also in liquorice form.

Our cats actually do rather well in the shop and we often come in to find Cheshire grins being sported all over the shop, as we do have a lot of mice (or did!) – psychedelic mice, white mice, sugar mice …

Some cats are of course pescetarian but we look after them too with salted herrings from our specialist liquorice range, dolphins and sharks from pick n’ mix. Sadly, no ‘thank you for looking after my pescetarian cat’ offerings though.

Our ancient ancestors obviously loved animals too – up to a (very sharp) point – as dinosaurs also feature in chocolate and jelly bean form, as do other reptiles such as chocolate frogs and turtles. We also get the occasional unicorn, but they’ve generally vanished before we get the chance to do a stock take.

Jelly-filled snails occasionally (and always very slowly) crawl under our counter, and jelly or fizzy worms often wriggle their way into paper bags for the little boys and girls of Worcester to enjoy. Oh, and we’re expecting robins to fly in this Christmas.

With Worcester BID ushering in herds of elephants to the city next summer, hopefully sunnier times lie ahead for all of us.

‘Vive les animaux’ as they quite correctly say in France.

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I am a writer and historian with a passion for sweets and football (not necessarily in that order!). I write fiction and non-fiction and, after working in the media for over 30 years, now run a sweet shop with my wife, Michelle, trading as Mr Simms Worcester. I also write about the history of sweets in a series of blog posts: 'A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Sweet Shop.'

Our shop is situated on the corner of Worcester's High Street and Fish Street - hence the title of this blog. I will be writing a weekly piece on thoughts and developments both in the world of sweets, the High Street and Worcestershire in general. All thoughts are my own.

YOUR CART

A view from the corner shop

Pennies and Pounds

Mysterious People

Sweet on animals

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