SCOUTING For BOYS? (GERROUTTA HERE!)

Long-time regular readers may recall me recounting that it was my family's accustomed practice to visit my maternal grandparents every Sunday in the 1960s and '70s.  At the side of my grandfather's armchair sat a small brass box (designed originally for coal or kindling, I suppose) in which resided a selection of chocolate confectionery.  When the old mantle-clock struck eight, the box would be opened, and my brother and myself allowed to choose two bars each.  One was for immediate consumption and the other was for school the next day.

Oh, the cornucopia of tempting treats that lay before our awestruck orbs: FRY'S TURKISH DELIGHT, CADBURY'S MILK TRAY (yes, they did it in bar-form as well), FRY'S CHOCOLATE CREAM and FRY'S FIVE CENTRE, MACKINTOSH'S CARAMAC, CADBURY'S BAR SIX and CADBURY'S DAIRY MILK, MARS BARS, MILKY WAYS, BOUNTYS - you name it, that box had it!  It's a wonder that I still have my own teeth.

FRY'S FIVE BOYS, of course, had nothing to do with any seedy perverts' depraved yearnings, but was a chocolate bar with pics of five faces, representing desperation, pacification, expectation, acclamation and, finally, realisation that it was a Fry's bar of chocolate.  In contrast to the name, it wasn't five separate boys, but rather five stages of the same boy's reactions.  Originally, the bar was called Fry's Milk Chocolate, but the advertising campaign must have struck a nerve with the public and it was renamed at some stage.

Sources differ as to what year it was withdrawn, some citing 1972, others '76, but one thing's for sure - whenever I hear the name or see the wrapper, I'm transported once again to the days of my childhood, when everybody, it seems, was far more innocent and the title of this post had an entirely different connotation that wouldn't even have raised an eyebrow.  (For those readers who may be unaware, 'Scouting For Boys' was the title of ROBERT BADEN-POWELL's book for youngsters, published in 1908.)  Oh, for those days again, I'm sure you agree.

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Incidentally, the former Fry's factory (they merged with Cadbury's in 1919) only closed in 2011.  The boy who posed for the original photographs was called LINDSAY POULTON, and the bar first went on sale in 1902.

AN OLD CHRISTMAS CARD...

I wrote out my Christmas cards last night for all my friends.  I'd bought a box of 40, so I still have 38 left if anybody's looking to buy some.  (Oh, what a wag I am.)  On the subject of cards, here's the legendary JIM REEVES being sentimental over one card in particular.  If you can relate to what he's singing about, let's hear your story.