Glaswegians will have fond memories of trick or treating from the 60s right through to the 90’s - back in the days before sugar taxes and draconian sweetie control legislature - Glasgow at Halloween was a veritable playground for the sweet tooth kid.
All year long young Glaswegians would anxiously anticipate Halloween, planning out their routes and wondering how they could slip through the scheme boundaries onto sweeter and posher pastures. Trick or treating in Glasgow is a fine art, one that has been refined for generations - passed on from sibling to sibling, cousin to cousin, but never the parents, ask them and they’d just moan about cavitities and the dentist.
Many of us wouldn’t have been able to afford such sweet luxuries often, so the concept of getting a massive mix-up of all different kind of sweeties was certainly something worth getting excited for.
Whether you were trick or treating from a pillowcase or a pail, these are the 15 old-school Glasgow sweeties every Glaswegian wanted while they were out guising.
1. Oddfellows
Oddfellows were certainly an odd sweetie - most of the Glasgow oddfellow’s of the 20th century came from King’s Sweet factory in Wishaw.
2. Soor Plooms
Soor Plooms were a playtime favourite of yours truly - the boiled green sweets certainly were sour. Popping more than one in your mouth at a time was sure to see your cheeks sucked between your teeth. (Pic: Soor Plooms)
3. Tunnock’s Tea cake
Getting one of these in your pillowcase at Halloween was like winning the lottery - only the savviest trick or treaters knew the best spots of posh doors to knock. The Tunnocks Tea cake truly was the jewel in the cavity-filled crown of any good sweetie bucket. Photo: PAMELA MAXWELL
4. Kola Cubes
Kola Cubes were everywhere, if we used them for construction instead of consumption, we probably could have built a scale-model Kola Glasgow - they were the quintessential sweet of the 60’s all over the UK, so it was no surprise to see so many of them around the city.