Shop 2, 158 Bondi Rd, Bondi, owned by Mrs Turner.

To the adults it was the “Goblin Sweets Shop”. To the children it was “The Lolly Shop”.
There were large glass jars with screw top lids on shelves across the back wall and smaller ones on the counter and they showed the many varieties of lollies which could be bought singularly and placed in small white paper bags. Many of the lollies were 2 or 3 a penny (then changed to decimal cents). These included:

• Conversation lollies,
• Jelly Beans,
• Butter Balls (red or yellow),
• Humbugs (pink and white stripes),
• Bull’s Eyes (black and white stripes),
• Green Frogs,
• Freddo Frogs (brown or white) and later individually wrapped,
• Fantails and Minties, paper wrapped, bought singularly and later in boxes,
• Jaffas (remember the old stories of kids rolling them down the aisles at the picture show?). You could buy them separately or later in boxes.
• Always a favourite were liquorice sticks and liquorice straps (about an inch wide and could be peeled into thin strips).
• Musk sticks were also a favourite to suck, they lasted longer as did “All Day Suckers”, “Gob Suckers” and Aniseed Balls.
• Marsh Mellows were great, pink or white, and remember the toasted coconut ones, mums always liked them!
• (Probably many more I don’t remember!)

Then there were the chocolates! Mrs Turner had one of the largest ranges of chocolates. They came in “not too deep” cardboard trays covered with clear cellophane wrapping and sold mostly by weight (lbs, pounds, ozs, ounces – pre metric). They were displayed in the glass showcase under the counter. Lots of favourites and many are still available today in speciality shops.

• Chocolate covered honeycomb (later boxed by Hoadley’s and later still sold as ‘bars’),
• After Dinner Mints, loose, by weight, and later boxed by Darrel Lea. I remember Easter and Christmas times with speciality chocolates and sweets.

Mrs Turner was well known in the Bondi/Waverley area and loved children coming into the shop, but she was very strict and wouldn’t put up with any misbehaviour. Children that had been well behaved might receive extra sweets in their bags, a broken half lolly, a short end of musk stick or similar.

Lyn Smith, Waverley Historical Society, May 2019.

P.S. Lyn worked in the store in the early 1970s.