Sweet ignorance

I was raised in communist Poland, I remember it quite well, I remember my childhood back then. It was hard, different. We didn't have Coca-Cola (we had Pepsi and at some point we had River Cola), nor we had bananas. Life was gray, and I mean colors of living, of the streets, shops, clothes, toys or sweets. Well, ok, I had LEGO. But as it comes to food - I am thinking that back then, vegetables and fruits were much more healthy. They were not stuffed with so many chemicals, emulgators or other stuff. I am not sentimental, not really. I remember also sweets we had - especially those lillipops, funny ones, sugar pure. That was perhaps chemistry, who knows?
So it was funny when I found that lillipop yesterday, exactly the same as we used to have then, in deep communist Poland. I found it in a turkish kiosk.

Anyway, our generation was stuffed (and still is) with chemicals either through food, shampoos or colorful drinks like lemonade. We are artificial from within. Of course back then I didn't think of all odd substances our food was full of. And when I found this "historical" lollipop I was thinking - was it already then so artificial? Definitely yes. The only difference was that it didn't have the list of ingredients written on the back of the package.

We really lived without that knowledge, in oblivious ignorance... and happiness in a way. But it was the same, same chemistry. We just didn't know. I didn't know - I was a child anyway.