My Gum Obsession: It's A Family Affair

So, as far back as I can remember, I have ALWAYS loved bubble gum. I remember riding my bike to the drugstore without my mother's permission (er..., SURPRISE, Mom), and purchasing my very first gum obsession, which was the regular bubble gum flavor of BubbleYum. I have also always liked to couple my favorite bubble gum with "gum extenders" - that's my term for any kind of candy or other gum that mixes well with gum and "extends" the gum flavor (I'll give you a sample list of gum extenders in a future blog, but for now, an example would be lemon drops.) At some point, I graduated to Big League Chew when it first came out, and the flavor of that gum makes my mouth water to this day (although it always stuck to my retainer, so I didn't chew it very often).

My father was also a gum-aholic. I remember as a child PRAYING that he would look up from his newspaper at night long enough to toss me a piece of his gum (his "drug" of choice was Bazooka). Also, vacations were not complete without the requisite bag of gum, which Mom would dole out judiciously (one - MAYBE two pieces at a time - that's it. Tightwad.) Sometimes, we got lucky, and Daddy somehow managed to commandeer the bag of gum from the driver's seat, and he would ALWAYS start chunking pieces to the backseat for me and my brother, usually followed by my mom shouting "Jim!!!!!", horrified at the profligate gumming of his children.

I remember in high school, coming home from dates on Saturday night, and staying up late, reading a good book, and eating more gum than you could imagine a sweet little 16-year old girl could shove in her mouth. I used to dread the day that my mother would wander into my room, see all the bubble gum wrappers behind my bed, and give me what-for. But my passion for chewing gum was always worth that risk.

So...here I am, 40-something, and I have never outgrown my passion for gum, which is evidenced by the fact that I am even blogging about it. But I just know more of you are out there: those of you who are secret "closet chewers"; who buy bags of gum at a time and feel a compulsion to tell the check-out clerk that it's for your kids (especially embarrassing since I don't have kids), who have perhaps ordered gum in BULK online and had it shipped to your house, and who have had to tell your dentist that you grind your teeth really badly so he won't learn of your gum addiction. I am one of you. I share your shame - in fact, I EMBRACE your shame. As long as I don't have to share my last box of Dubble Bubble.