I wonder how many of us are old enough to remember sweet cigarettes -- a type of confectionery that wouldn't be sold under that name today.  Even the little box in which they were sold resembled an old fashioned cigarette packet.  The 1950s was a wacky era.

I'm glad that someone else remembers sweet cigarettes.  In 2014, they seem almost like something I must have invented.  One end was coloured pink to represent the lighted end of the fag.  I always ate that end last.  That way, as I nibbled from the other end, the cigarette grew shorter but remained 'alight' -- like a grownup smoking a real cigarette.  I used to hold them between my index and middle fingers, just as the grownups did.  Oh the innocent days of childhood!

As to fag packets, we used to remove the inner trays, flatten them and play flicking games with them.  That was called 'faggies' -- a downmarket version of 'ciggies', which was played with cigarette cards (and other trading cards, including the ones they put in sweet cigarette packets).  There was a certain cachet in having 'rare faggies' -- flattened packets of cigarette brands not often seen by the local juvenile population (such as Gold Flake).  In my twenties, I felt that I was quite a swell when I smoked Gold Flake.  Oh the innocent days of being not so far removed from childhood!