Nadine Wark
One of my New Year’s resolutions has always been to give up chocolate, or at least cut back.
My life-long love affair with chocolate began as a young girl, growing up in Corunna, with a proper English ‘mum’ who introduced me to Cadbury’s.
I fondly recall the soft, smooth texture and delicious taste. At Christmastime, in some stores, shoppers can still find a very long box of Cadbury Fingers. These are chocolate-covered biscuits, so really cookies, but equally delicious in their own right.
I wouldn’t want be seen leaving a store with one under my arm insisting, “Oh, these are not for me!”
Next, it was Smarties, and back in the day they sold for 10 cents a box. A large square box was 25 cents. I remember riding my bike downtown to Rose’s Variety to buy Smarties, usually a large for Mum and a smaller one for myself.
I wasn’t happy eating just a few and had to devour the entire box at one sitting, and then watch Mum eat hers. (I do recall her sharing with me).
As teenagers, my friend Carolyn and I got ourselves into a ‘fix’ one summer while selling World’s Finest Chocolates as a fundraiser for our drum and bugle corps, the Sarnia Lionettes.
What started out as an innocent afternoon of listening to Beatles’ music and sharing one chocolate bar turned into an all-out chocolate-fest.
The bars were large and some had nuts. We also had boxes of chocolate almonds to sell. After sharing the one bar we looked at one another and instantaneously agreed, “Let’s share one more.”
Well, the second was better than the first. I can’t recall how many we ate but it eventually reached the point the chocolate almonds entered the conversation. And boy, they were good too.
The downside of this bingeing was that someone — meaning the two of us — had to cover these ‘unforeseen sales,’ which occurred without one knock at a door!
I forget the final tally but it was a substantial sum that made a dent in our babysitting money and pop-bottle returns. As well, we tried hitting on our parents, hoping for help, even though the ‘purchases’ were in our stomachs.
When I worked downtown, the Laura Secord store was just across the street. These days, I’m into Lindor, and a local restaurant recently offering a free box of five with dinner.
I’m proud of the way I handled these foil-wrapped gems. I didn’t unwrap them till I got home.
Mum would be proud.
Nadine Wark is a retired office administrator and freelance writer in Sarnia