Lolly Day

Quite possibly the greatest day ever, as a kid we use to have 'Lolly Day'. "What is lolly day?" Glad you asked, during our primary school days, once a fortnight (back then I didn't really know what a fortnight was, so I'm taking a stab) our dearest mum would pick us up from school, in her usual spot, then pull up outside the corner shop. She would proceed to give us $1 each and we got to spend this on lollies!

Now this is going to make me sound really old, but back in my day you could get heaps of lollies for a $1. Around the start of the footy season this year I went to the same shop and bought some lollies for pre-game and half-time consumption. This was the first time I bought lollies like this for a long time, so I thought $1 would be sufficient enough, oh how wrong I was! $1 got me next to no lollies, and it made me depressed!

Back when I was a kid, I remember my favourite lollies being red frogs, racing cars (especially the blue one, this is probably what started my blue cruiser obsession), milk bottles, strawberry's and cream and pineapples. On occasion I'd go for the chocolate frogs, or a packet of fads or big bosses, but why settle for something less than the best.

Of course there was times when we would get $2! This usually occurred after a trip to the local doctor for needles, or we got a good report card. I will admit, I never got $2 Lolly Day for a report card, but, I did get $2 Lolly Day for doctor trips!

These were very fond memories of my childhood, and I still remember one day catching mum stealing lollies out of my bag as I went to get a drink, and me feeling angry. That is, until she tried to give the lollies back she had in her mouth, than I felt a bit ewwey and let her keep the lollies.

This was a simple, affordable option of rewarding us, or just giving us a treat. Sometimes we could get the ultimatum of either having a larger item such as ice-cream or a mars bar and miss the next lolly day, or miss the ice-cream and have that lolly day and still keep the next one. Sometimes it was worth getting the ice-cream, although, there was time where we could buy Paddlepops with our $1! But of course you wouldn't scwonder a potential 2 lolly days on something like a paddlepop or billabong, you would go a heaven or heart (which was mum's favourite ice-cream, so if you got this, you had to be prepared to share).

One day if I am to ever find a girlfriend (hey it could happen!), to whom would become my wife (I'm delightful, no reason why she wouldn't want to marry me), then would then bear me a child or 8 (I would hope she would have sexual intercourse with me), I think I will employ the same ritual and give my kids Lolly Day! However I don't think it would be $1, maybe with inflation it would be maybe $100, but them whippersnappers probably won't have racing cars and red frogs!


From The One They Call Anthony, This Is The Life & Times