Looking back, my childhood in 1985 in Uijeongbu, when I was in elementary school (back then it was called national school), is truly nostalgic.

On my way home from school, I could buy a little happiness for the day with a 50 won coin I kept safely in my pocket, and that was Crown Sandos. Inside the yellow bag were two round biscuits, and when I took one out and bit into it, the sweet strawberry cream filled my mouth from the crumbly snack, and that taste is still vivid in my memory.

At that time, 50 won was not a small amount, but the Sandos were worth every penny. I would sit in the alley with my friends and share a bag, and it feels like I can still hear the laughter and the sound of the snacks crumbling.

The name 'Sando' is also interesting. It actually comes from the 'sand' in sandwich biscuit, but it solidified into 'Sando' following the Japanese pronunciation.

In the early 1990s, it briefly changed its name to 'Crown Sand' and actor Lim Hyun-sik appeared in the commercials, but it actually lost popularity and returned to 'Sando'. In a way, it was a mistake to tamper with a beloved name that consumers were already familiar with. I also thought that 'Sando' sounded much tastier back then.

Initially, it was square-shaped, but the Sando I remember was a round biscuit.

The creams came in various flavors like strawberry, choco-vanilla, cream cheese, and sweet milk, but the one I reached for the most was definitely the strawberry flavor. Occasionally, there were variants like green tea or red ginseng, but I would try those out of curiosity and then return to strawberry. The sweet strawberry cream was the one that matched children's taste the best.

Sando was truly a 'national snack'. No matter where you went in the country, you could see at least one bag of Sando, and there are even stories of it being placed on the ritual table. The wrappers could be found rolling around on the streets, and there were even kids secretly eating them on the bus.

The crispiness of the snack could have been bland, but the cream sandwiched in the middle sweetly filled that void. Unlike Oreos, which are hard, Sando's charm was in its softer chewiness.

There were various ways to eat it. Some kids would just take a big bite, while others would separate the two pieces like Oreos and lick the cream. I would sometimes carefully peel the snack apart and gather the cream on one side to eat, and strangely, that made it taste even more special. I still remember the scene in the commercial where Jeon Yoo-seong said, "We used to eat it like this" while separating the snack and licking the cream.

Now, there are plenty of snacks, and new ones catch our attention every time. But there are few snacks that fill the heart like the Sando I bought for 50 won at the alley supermarket during my childhood.

In the simplest times of life, the sweet cream and crumbly biscuit of Sando made me forget the fatigue of the day, and that taste still remains vividly in my memories.

The world has changed a lot, but the memories of Sando that linger in my mouth still feel as vivid as that afternoon in my childhood.