There are many things in life that leave an impression with you. For me one of those things is gum, chewing gum, bubble gum, all things gum related. If you are old enough to remember Bubs Daddy, Hubba Bubba, Bazooka bubble gum with the cartoon strip called Bazooka Joe, and the penny gum ball machine, you were a kid in the 1970’s.

I grew up about a mile from a convenience store. When I would get finished doing my chores around the house, I would walk to the store with my brothers and sisters to buy gum, and lots of it. I loved chewing bubble gum and would blow huge bubbles that would pop all over my face. Sometimes I would even chew two or three pieces at once. Oh, the memories.

It seems like I was always in some competition with my brothers. One of them suggested we see who could chew the same piece of gum the longest. One of my brothers even went to sleep chewing his gum that ended up in his hair the next morning. The gum was so tangled he needed to get an early hair cut.

We decided to make the rule more clear. It was OK to take your gum out of your mouth at night. I remember taking my gum, and putting it on my wooden bed post. The next morning when I took the gum from the post it had wood stuck to the gum. The gum had become extremely stiff from 16 days of chewing that it pulled wood from the bed. I believe my brother Mel won after 17 days.

I got to thinking about gum when I was given a bag of candy that was mostly gum to give to the kids at school. I don’t like giving the kids gum because it is to messy so I chewed a few pieces. This is when my memories started coming back to me when I held gum more sacred. After all these years, it has become more clear why I don’t like to chew gum. I chewed enough gum as a child to last a lifetime.