Saving It For Later

I apologize in advance to my mother-in-law for the subject of this blog.

There is a great tradition of gum chewing on my mother's maternal side. Even my great-grandmother, Hazel Sander, enjoyed the habit, although she never learned to blow a bubble until her late seventies. I was witness to the event during a visit to my great-grandparents' home in Lincoln, Nebraska. I believe that was the same trip in which she climbed over a booth at a restaurant, but that's another story. Each year while visiting family in Michigan, I could be assured of seeing a ceramic ring holder sitting on the top of Ma's rolltop desk. It was rarely used for it's intended purpose however, instead one could usually find it holding a wad of gum being saved for further use. My mother also carried on the tradition at my childhood home, rolltop desk and all. These days, my mom's desk resides at my house but more often than not you will find my gum wads, not there, but on the dash of my van. My oldest, Jubal is following in the family footsteps. A couple years ago I opened the freezer to find a mass of purple bubble gum the size of a baseball behind my frozen chicken. The most recent treasure was discovered today on Jubal's top bunk while helping Nolan clean in the boys' room. I'm QUITE sure that I don't want to know how long this work of art has been sitting up there. I've included a photo for your enjoyment.