By Michelle Barrett, Freelance Writer
- Carlington Wilmot /Freelance Photographer
REMEMBER WHEN you were a child going to school and you would set aside a portion of your lunch money no matter how limited the funds were, for buying candies such as Paradise Plum, Busta, Toffee, Ginger Log, Icy Mint, Snow Mint, Mint Balls and Candy Cane from the sweetie lady by the school gate? Do you also remember having an informal contest among you and your friends on how far the toffee would stretch after chewing it for a few seconds or bartering sweets for marbles or policeman
button cookies? Oh, such sweet memories!
While the sweetie lady or the candy man still sells at most school gates and their goods have expanded to include bag juice and chips, old-time favourite Jamaican candies such as Paradise Plum and Busta are almost non-existent among these after-school goodies.
"Right now a di foreign sweetie dem a run Jamaica, especially since Lannaman's candy factory close down a few years now. The only two old-time favourites ah can get now is the Icy Mint and the Mint Ball and dat is weh dem import from foreign. As for Paradise Plum and Busta mi
couldn't tell when last I see them," said Aubrey "Sin" Byfield who has been selling sweets for the past 30 years.
A look at his stall at the Portmore Bus Station in downtown Kingston revealed that was indeed so. Apart from a jar which had a few Icy Mints inside, there were coloured boxes filled with candies, nuts and chocolates with bold colourful writings in neon colours emblazoned on them. The candies were of a wide variety - all imported from abroad. They were Gummi Pizza slices, Sour Mini-Hamburger Treat, Gummi Mini- Sweet Hot Dogs and Sour French Fries, Power Skittles, Big Foot and Nestle Butterfinger. All these candies range in prices from $10.00 to $30.00. The cheapest and two of the more popular ones are the Sour Sweet chewy candies, which cost a dollar each and Smartie candies resembling pills that cost $5.00 per pack. Byfield, who started selling sweets when he was only 13 years old, said he now gets his candy supplies from the wholesale stores in downtown Kingston where on any given weekday mornings scores of sweet vendors can be found replenishing their stocks.
Schoolchildren, he noted, are his main customers and despite the rising costs of the goods owing to the slide of the dollar, he manages to keep his prices stable at least for now, for the sake of the children. He also has a few adult customers who prefer candies such as Icy Mints, chewing gums and chocolate-covered peanuts.
As I took a closer look at his stall, he pointed to the popular candies such as Big Foot which is another version of the Stick'N'Dip where one places a candy stick in another section of the package filled with candy powder that seems to 'pop' on contact with the tongue. Then there is the Crazy Hair, a chewy candy in a container similar to that of the pump tube of toothpaste. It comes in bright colours, oval-shaped and usually has a cap, which require the technical skills of a child to remove. Skittles are also hot favourites as well as Power Ranger sticks.
"Selling sweets and cigarettes is how I've always earned my living. Is this let me buy my house, car and send my four children dem to school," said Byfield proudly as he recalled the days when he used to sell on the buses parked at the Portmore Bus terminus in downtown Kingston.
"Nowadays, business not so bright like first time, 'cause everybody selling sweeties pon de roadside now. What they need to do is build a confectionery factory where we can make our own sweets and persons will get more work," continued Byfield.
Melrose Walters, known to her customers as Miss Bev, has been selling candies for the past 15 years and like Byfield has seen a radical change in the candy market during this period. She sells at the gates of Southborough Primary School in Independence City, St. Catherine and noted that business has declined somewhat over the past five years.
"Most times, the school children don't have the amount of money needed to buy the goods, so mi try and help them out as much as possible. Yuh know I would give them a little discount and I always make
sure that they don't spend off their bus fares," said Walters.
A typical day for Walters begins at 6:00 a.m. when she fixes herself a cup of tea and get dressed for the day. She then puts together her goods to sell. By 7:30 a.m. she sets up her stall at the school gates to get the early morning sales. By 9:00 a.m. sales start to dwindle and so she goes back home to complete her chores. At 2:30 p.m. she resumes her selling to get the afternoon sales from the students and teachers leaving the school's compound.
"It's not much money, but it's sure as the children support us as much as we can. The money also help me pay my bills and eat some food," said Walters.
It was the harsh economic times that led vendor Sharon Clarke to the gates of Portsmouth Primary School to sell sweets. It's almost a year now since she started selling and from her reports things have been going pretty well.
"Sourface, Marshmallow Peeps and Nerds are the more popular candies among the kids and I sell a few Icy Mints and Mint Balls now and then," said Clarke.
She further added that it was the income she received from selling sweets that helped her send her three children to school. One of them, her oldest son, currently attends St. George's College which, she noted, can be very costly.
Clarke, like Walters, gets her candy supplies either at the wholesale stores in downtown Kingston or from a van salesman who delivers in the early hours of the morning. However, while business seem to be doing well she bemoaned the fact that candy favourites such as Paradise Plum and Busta are off the shelves and expressed her desire for them to return.
