Yvonne
As happens from time to time, I am making a short diversion away from the ‘bookish’ posts you will usually find here, to share one of my other pastimes with you.
Yes! I am a not so secret dissectologist – or someone who enjoys assembling jigsaw puzzles…
Clicking on this Amazon link will allow you to magnify individual items, for a closer look at all those 1960s sweet memories!
As with so many of this style of jigsaw, the traditional way of making the outside edge first, just wouldn’t have worked for me. So I just got stuck right into assembling the prominent images first and worked my way out, adding the edge pieces as I went.
Born in 1958, I was very much a working class ‘child of the 60s’, and there were several of these sweet treats I didn’t recognise, more than I actually care to admit when I started totting them up! On thinking back however, I was too young to make my own way to school with money in my pocket to spend at the corner shop, on the way to class. And when our meagre pocket money was dished out on a Saturday afternoon, my brother and I tried to get as many sweets as we could for our pennies, so we usually ended up with 4 for a penny chews and similar – quantity always won out over quality in those days, although ‘Opal fruits’ to share, were always a winner if dad was feeling generous! Fancy bars and boxes of chocolates, like most of those illustrated in this puzzle, were reserved for special occasions and Christmas!
GIBSONS – 1960s SWEET MEMORIES
During the Swinging Sixties, a new era of sophistication was heralded with After Eight thin mints and then Matchmakers chocolate sticks in orange, coffee and peppermint flavours. There was a growing appetite for peppermint with chocolate, including the new Rowntrees Cracknel. Other new brands on the sweet counter included Jelly Tots, Tooty Fruities, Toffee Crisp, Skippy, Aztec, Galaxy Counters, Treats and Marathon (becoming Snickers in 1989).
Perhaps the most notable of boxed assortments in the 1960s was Lucky Numbers in its funky box, but most people remained loyal to familiar names like Milk Tray (since 1916), Dairy Box (1936) and Roses (1938).
The big change in retailing was the growth of the supermarket, and this rend influenced the way the wrapper was designed, now becoming more visible to stand out from the crowd.
THEÂ ROBERTÂ OPIEÂ SERIES
This evocative and nostalgic series of sweet memory jigsaws will remind us all of running down to the corner shop to buy our favourite treats. Through this series, the changing face of familiar wrappers can be seen, along with the products that have come and gone. Whatever our age, they have played a part in our lives – and our memories.
The items that make up these jigsaws come from the Robert Opie Collection, which is housed at the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in London’s Notting Hill.
Having saved the packaging and promotional materials around him since he was at school, Robert Opie gathered together the earlier story of mass manufacture from many sources.
In 1975 he held an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and then in 1984 founded Britain’s first museum devoted to the story of our consumer society.
The displays give a sense of the evolving culture and life-style since Victorian times, represented through the everyday items that we all take for granted – from motor cars, telephones, holidays and entertainment, to all manner of branded groceries, sweets and household goods.
The collection traces the changes in social taste and tempo, the whims of style and fashion, the advent of aviation, the jazz age and the gradual emancipation of women. It’s through the fabric of our daily living – the song sheets, toys, souvenirs, postcards, magazines and posters – that the rich tapestry of the British way of life is woven together.
GIBSONSÂ GAMESÂ
2020 marks 101 years since Gibsons founder, Harry Percy Gibson formed H. P. Gibson & Sons Limited. Now into their fourth generation with Harry’s great-granddaughter at the helm, they are proud of their British heritage and are still providing fun family pastimes for all ages.
The Gibsons team and product offering have grown a lot over the last ten decades, however their values remain the same. ‘Bringing people together’ underpins everything they do: from encouraging people to play games, and creating a happy working culture, to supporting a local children’s charity and valuing the relationships with their suppliers and customers.
Their 1000 piece puzzles are made from the thickest board on the market. They use 100% recycled board for their entire jigsaw range and work with the best artists from all around the world.
Check out the Gibsons website
Follow Gibsons on Twitter
Connect with Gibsons on Facebook
‘1960s Sweet Memories’ like so many of my jigsaws, was a charity shop purchase, so I am always at the mercy of the previous owner, as to whether or not they have donated a complete item. This time I was not disappointed!
Any thoughts or comments are my own personal opinion and I am in no way being monetarily compensated for this, or any other article promoting Gibsons Jigsaw Puzzles.
I personally do not agree with ‘rating’ a purchase, as the overall experience is all a matter of personal taste, which varies from person to person. However some review sites do demand a rating value, so when this review is posted to such a site, it will attract 5 out of 5 stars for quality, complexity and enjoyment, plus value for money.
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They still had some of those sweets in the 1980s, although some had been renamed in the 1990s.
When we were young kids we’d get 20-25p on a Friday after school to get a sweet or a bag of penny/tupenny sweets from the village shop. Obviously 20p went a lot further than it does these days!
Hi Nikki,
We used to get our pocket money on a Saturday afternoon, after we had gone into Swindon to do the weekly shop and exchange our library books. We used to walk past a little sweet shop run by two elderly sisters and we were allowed in there to get our ‘sweetie’ ration. We always went for quantity over quality, although if dad had any spare cash after working overtime, he would always buy a bar of decent chocolate as a treat for the family.
I was surprised by how many of the featured confectionary I didn’t remember and as I have the set of four jigsaws in the ‘Sweet Memories’ series, covering the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s, it is interesting to see which ones actually survived and were obviously the most popular.
I hope that you enjoyed your Christmas as much as possible. We were on our own, which suited us just fine, as it meant that neither we, nor any of either family, needed to take any risks.
Thank you for stopping by and let’s hope that 2021 is a much better year for us all 🙂
I would have enjoyed this puzzle, Yvonne. I recognize the brand name of Cadbury’s, but I don’t think I would have in the 60s. Other than that brand, I only know of Nestle’s and Kit Kat (which might be made by Nestle’s).
Besides the horses, which I’m currently working on, I received three more puzzles for Christmas! All look fun!
Hi Kelly,
Dave laughed at me because of the amount of puzzles I used to buy from the charity shop and hoard away. I told him it was just in case that we had no money for such luxuries when we retired, little knowing just how convenient my stash would be right now, during lockdown.
You can’t buy puzzles, either second hand from charity shops, or brand new online, “for love nor money”. When this is all over, the market is going to be flooded with second hand puzzles, when people have a good clear out. Guess what I shall be doing? – Buying them all up to replenish my stocks!
Good Luck with the horses, that is going to take you a while to complete!
I hope that 2021 is kind to you and thanks for stopping by 🙂
That’s quite a trip down memory lane. My background was similar to yours and like you I wanted value for my small amount of pocket money and usually went for sweets that were cheap and lasted a while. When older I loved those boxes of Rowntree’s fruit gums and Munchies but only as a treat as they weren’t very cheap. I bet that was a fun puzzle to do.
Hi Cath,
I think that basically any sweet which was chewy was considered value for money, because they tended to last longer than anything else!
I must check and see if anyone makes a jigsaw which features a selection of those old penny teethe rotters! – ‘black jacks’, ‘fruit salads’, ‘drumsticks’ etc. I know there are still sites where you can buy all these old favourites, but they just don’t taste the same any more (I did have to taste test a few of them, just to make sure!)
If we were allowed an extra treat, I think my favourites were ‘chewing nuts’. I didn’t mind things like ‘fruit gums’, ‘fruit pastels’, and ‘wine gums’, but I only really liked the orange and yellow ones – so then I used to have to persuade my younger brother to eat all the other colours!
I have quite a lot of this style of jigsaw, as Gibsons made a series of four ‘sweet memories’ puzzles; four ‘toy box’ memories; and four ‘shopping basket’ memories, spanning the different decades, and I seem to have most of them!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope that your Christmas was as good as it possibly could have been given the current restrictions 🙂
As you know, my background is very different, for many reasons. 🙂 I am interested in branding and I would have enjoyed making a puzzle like this one, for this exact reason. I would be a bit scared to buy a puzzle from the charity shop as I imagine I would miss a piece of two, glad to hear that yours was complete.
Hi Anca,
If you are ever up in London, I’m sure you would enjoy a visit to the ‘Museum of Brands, Packaging & Advertising’ (I have included a link in the text about half way down the post). We visited the exhibition when it was at its original home in Gloucester Docks, but that was many years ago now and the founder, Robert Opie, is adding to his collection all the time. It was really interesting and very cringeworthy when you see some of the advertising tactics we used back in the 50s, 60s and 70s in particular. You just couldn’t get away with it these days!!
Because I used to volunteer in the charity shop where I bought most of my puzzles, I got to know the donors who had looked after their puzzles and diligently kept all the pieces together in a sealed bag inside the box so they wouldn’t get lost. I have been caught out once or twice, but given that I only paid £3 for a 1,000 piece puzzle which would have been £10-£12 anywhere else, I didn’t really mind. I wouldn’t buy a puzzle second-hand online though!!
Thanks for taking the time to comment, I appreciate your support 🙂
I visited the museum in London, it was fascinating. I had no idea some brands were so old. £3 instead of £12 is a bargain. I might get one next time I’m in a charity shop. 🙂
Just give the puzzle box a good shake, you can generally tell if the pieces are bagged up inside and that’s usually a good sign that it has been in a careful puzzle maker’s home 🙂
Happy hunting 🙂