The writer David Sedaris wrote a great diary for the online magazine Slate.com years ago, and I always remember the way he opened it:
My earliest diaries are stored away in my father’s basement, and I can’t bear to read them. Entries are introduced with Joni Mitchell quotes and melodramatic sob stories that end with lines such as, “I know now that I must walk alone!!!” … I’d like to know what I ate when I was 19 years old. How much did it cost for a pound of chicken or a pack of cigarettes? What did I carry in my wallet, and who did I talk to on the telephone? My earliest diaries tell me none of these things.
It’s so true: I remember all my stupid feelings and emotions from when I was a teenager, but for the life of me I can’t remember how much a packet of Taytos cost back then. Our reader Aoife contacted us with a similar issue:
Delighted with the FABU weather we’re having today I headed out to Centra on my lunch break to pick up an icecream. Went for an old school favourite- a Brunch original- none of your biscuit or mint for me! I headed up to the counter, confident in the belief that my chocolatey treat wouldn’t cost much more than 60c. To my HORROR I was charged €1.10!!
I was too excited about the Brunch to refuse to pay so glumly slunk out of the shop.
What do you think about that – how much is too much for a childhood favourite?
So what do you think? Which of your favourite childhood treats have increased in price the most?
Monday 23 March, 2009 at 10:46 am
Ah, I remember a time when chocolate bars would cost no more than 30p (now about 38 cents, I think)
Monday 23 March, 2009 at 10:53 am
16p for a bag of cheese and onion tayto crisps!! and they’re a fortune now!!
Monday 23 March, 2009 at 11:24 am
I recall 10p Taytos. And there used to be a delicious Spring Onion flavour as well.
Monday 23 March, 2009 at 12:04 pm
i remember 11p taytos … and everytime it went up a penny it was talked about at school … also remember that Magnums were the first ice creams to be near £1 .. we were all shocked at how expensive they were !!
Monday 23 March, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I remember when £5 would get you to the cinema (2.60), sweets and a burger and drink after!! Them were the days!!!
Thursday 26 March, 2009 at 6:12 pm
I definitely remember being able to buy a lot of sweets for 20p (and i’m only 20 now so we’re not talking ye olde times). Summers were spent getting 20p’s and running to the shop to get as much as we could. Seemed like a fortune then 🙂
There are only a few prices i can remember exactly. It was 30p for a Virgin Cola (foul stuff) and 50p for Coca Cola. Im certain crisps were less than 20p, but that could be the dodgier kinds (eg burger bites) rather than proper taytos. Jellies were a penny each and judging from the cinema pick n’ mix they now cost more per gram than saffron. Honestly, a cocaine habit would be easier to sustain than a pick n’ mix one.