Moment
The end of sweet rationing
4 February 1953.
The story
Sweets were rationed in Britain from 1942 and stayed rationed for eleven years, longer than the war itself. An attempt to lift the ration in 1949 failed when demand overwhelmed supply and it had to be reimposed within months. Rationing finally ended on 4 February 1953, and shops sold out across the country within days. The generation that grew up with the ration treated sweets differently for the rest of their lives, which is a large part of why the nostalgia category is as strong as it is.
