• I went away to boarding school at the age of eight in 1965. We were allowed 30/- (£1.50) pocket money a term and were allowed to take out no more than 2/6 (12.5p) each week. The only place to spend money was the school tuck shop although one was also encouraged to give money to various charitable causes.

    The tuck shop had a small selection of sweets and, in the summer term, cheap ice lollies. It also had one brand of soft drink; Fling, a brown liquid which was somewhat fizzy in a bottle like a Coca Cola bottle. I have no memory of its taste other than it tasted brown and sweet. I never heard about the drink anywhere outside school although I now see that one can buy used Fling bottles on Ebay for considerable sums. Back in the day, we returned them for the halfpenny deposit.

    A couple of years after I started at the school, there was a sudden change; almost a revolution. The school came into the modern age and Fling disappeared. Instead we had a choice of flavours of a drink called "Hubbly Bubbly". One was very sweet and red in colour. There was also a clear version which exceeded all sweetness measures and was called Ice Cream Soda. I think there was also a cola. A quick bit of internet research shows that it was originally a South African drink that was made and bottled in the Chilterns in the 1950s and 1960s. The bottle had little indents to represent the bubbles within. It was very fizzy. Again, I never saw it outside the school.

    The tuck shop also sold AirFix models and minature toy soldiers. I still have a tin (Quality Street of course) which contains my AirFix toy soldiers. They cost 2/9 a set and one had to seek special permission to take out so much pocket money in one go. I often went without sweets and fizzy drinks as I built my collection.

About

Avatar for cliveo @cliveo started