Other customers in the queue in the small village shop, just a couple of weeks ago, edged, perceptibly, away from me thinking that I had gone stark raving mad.
They may have had some justification for their concerns.
There I was, a middle aged man, in a business suit running his hands through the loose contents of a large Tupperware tub on the serving counter and not only laughing but gleefully muttering to himself. I may also have crudely paraphrased Charlton Heston's outburst from the end of the 1968 movie Planet of the Apes, "You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!"
It was, on reflection, a perfect sentiment upon my discovery that Anglo Bubblegum was back on sale.
Those of a certain generation will clearly recall the confectionery and its distinctive packaging.
It was a pocket money goodie, one of those amongst Fruit Salad and Black Jack Chews, that could be acquired from the local newsagents or sweet shop at 8 to an old penny although I seem to remember that an Anglo Bubbly was at more of a premium price, say half a penny each.
The wrapper was bright blue, yellow and pink around the flattened oval of the bubble gum itself with tight paper twists holding it all together. In my early childhood in the 1970's it was a main purchase with my weekly allowance after deductions for Speed and Power Magazine, a lucky bag, Sherbet Fountains and Refreshers.
There was a certain anticipation and excitement about the gum. It tasted good, was the perfect accompaniment for hour upon hour of playing out and also gave a bit of entertainment and peer to peer competition in the actual feat of trying to blow the biggest bubble.
I would say, with confidence, that there will not have been a week in my life between the ages of 8 and 14 without an Anglo Bubbly in my sticky hands, adhered to my clothing, speckled on my face or with difficult to extract traces in my eyebrows and fringe.
As adolescence kicked in there were far more important things to consider and gradually I became weaned off bubble gum.
It was the case that I just did not spend as much time or at least did not notice the wide range of products in the sweetie section of my local shop or in the regimented display at Woolworth's Pick and Mix.
I am not therefore sure of the timeline involved in the disappearance of Anglo's from sale or indeed if they ever went out of production at all.
Like most childhood goodies there was a degree of scaling down in size in austere times and inflationary pressures soon meant that the rate of exchange for the aforementioned Fruit Salads and Black Jacks went down to 1 a penny.
Tastes changed amongst the younger consumers with the onset of the 1980's and to the present day with the dominance of space dust, tic-tacs, branded and collectable items and a certain gullibility for slickly advertised and marketed Haribo and, currently, Maoam sweets.
That moment of joyous outcry in the village shop was a release of pent up emotions upon seeing a revamped Anglo Bubble Gum. It brought back those moments of happy but sometimes quite painful and frustrating choice of what type and quantity of goodies to put into the white paper bag at the sweet shop.
It was a challenge to make my pocket money stretch to the maximum. Of course the decisions were made more difficult in that most of my cash had already gone on Anglo Bubblies which I could feel nestling comfortingly and reassuringly in the grip of my tiny, sweaty palm.
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