Retro sweets can be the simplest key to childhood memories, and they taste nice too.

Nothing can start a misty-eyed journey down memory lane better than the mere mention of sweets of days gone by.

And the companies which produce these delights are cottoning on to our nation's love of sweets of yesteryear.

Recent reports suggest that Marathon bars will be making a return to the shops to replace Snickers, while Opal Fruits are making a limited comeback instead of Starburst. Wispas also returned to our shelves recently.

On Wearside, we love traditional sweets, and thankfully we have some cracking sweet Meccas right on the doorstep.

Martin O' Neill and wife Joan own Sweet Home Alabama on the corner of High Street West and Fawcett Street.

They're devoted to classic sweets and so are their customers, with thousands of Sarsaparilla tablets, Midget Gems and Poor Bens Liquorice crossing the counter every week.

Martin said: "Sarsaparilla tablets are the traditional Sunderland sweet – they are the favourite by far.

"I think they are passed down from family to family and for lots of
children it's the first sweet they really remember.

"Sweets like this will always be popular because our sense of taste and memory are so closely aligned.

"Certain sweets can remind us of happy times with grandparents, parents or at school."

Martin's own memories of childhood sweets are still strong. He said: "I remember as a child that my dad would come home from work every Friday with comics and sweets, usually Trigger bars and The Victor comic. We get lots of nostalgic shoppers and they get very excited when they spot something they haven't seen for years, some people see us as a museum."

The gloriously old-fashioned shop stocks goodies made by small family firms like Maxons, Walker's Toffees and Barnetts: Rainbow Whirls, Tooti Fruity nougat, Pascall Kopp Kops, Cough Candy Twists, Mega Sour Apples, ABC letters clutter the shelves, with sugar-free, gluten-free and Halal sweets being the only sign that the shop is part of the 21st century.

For Martin and Joan, the business is a way of keeping an older kind of service alive. He said: "Town centres are becoming more homogenised and shops tend to have different names but sell the same stuff. We don't tend to sell the sweets and snacks you can buy anywhere: we deliberately stock the more obscure things."

Many of the sweet jars in the shop have rhymes and notes pasted on. Jelly Dolphins are labelled: 'C'mon kids! Together we can endanger this species." Liquorice Torpedoes are "Weapon of Mass Perfection" and the Smarties jar bears the following legend: "Eating these will make you better looking, more intelligent and therefore more attractive to the opposite sex. (not strictly fact, but it works for me..."

Martin said: "Retail is so very sterile these days and the human element is being stripped out of it.

"Supermarkets are using more self service machines because they don't want to pay staff who will chat to customers or help them out.

"We've deliberately gone the other way – we like to show we have a sense of humour. "

Martin said: "People come into the shop who used to work in the old sweet factory on the High Street in Sunderland and the sweet factory at Hetton.

"We get everybody in here and everybody is welcome. We're always busy on match days and as season ticket holders we rarely manage to see kick-off!

Martin and Joan even sell their own Sunderland Rock, which has been taken all over the world as souvenirs and gifts, even to Antarctica.

"My daughter used to say it had been everywhere except Antarctica but then two of our customers who travelled to the Falkland Isles took some over just to make sure it really had been everywhere."

WIN GREAT GOODIES

We've teamed up with Beamish and Sweetie World for a great giveaway: a family ticket for Beamish (two adults and two children) and the top ten sweets sold by online sweet company, Sweetie World.

Sweetie World sells hundreds of brilliant retro sweets. For more information visit: www.sweetieworld.co.uk

To win, tell us, in no more than 50 words, what your favourite sweet is and why.

Send your entry along with your name, address, and telephone number to: Alison Goulding, Retro Sweets Comp, Echo House, Pennywell, Sunderland, SR4 9ER.

Read more in today's Echo