I Love Gum!
A Bit of 70's Nostalgia
Nothing makes a kid want something more than a grown-up telling them they can't have it. In my case it was gum. My parents were terrified I would swallow it, make my teeth fall out, and get in my hair, the dog's hair, my clothes, the carpet .... But as I grew older all the other kids collected cards from baseball packs, originally the baseball cards, then later the Wacky Pack joke brands stickers I never got to stick on my notebooks because I wasn't allowed to buy the pack containing that single, dry, dusty stick of gum with all the cards. I wasn't allowed Dubble Bubble, Chiclets, gumball machines, or even supposed to have Bazooka (but I did manage to sneak those to save up for the mail-order toys). Yes, even in gradeschool, I was already making my plans. Gum would be mine .... someday.
All other photos are by me; All Rights Reserved 2013
Do You Remember Wacky Packages (and oh yeah, the stick of gum) - Am I showing my age?
Wacky Packages were first produced by Topps in 1967 (the same company that produced the famous baseball cards), but were brought back during the years that were meaningful to me, 1973-1976. It seemed all the other kids had these parady stickers, and traded each other for them.
Hubba Bubba, Bubble Yum and Bubblicious
The "Chunky" Gums
After Dubble Bubble and Bazooka, these were the first new gums for kids of my generation (meaning, bring on the sugar!) that I remember.
Bubble Yum was the first of the three, introduced in 1975 as the first soft bubble gum. After years of jawing on Dubble Bubble and Bazooka, or the Topps cards gum, believe me, kids everywhere wanted this. It's popularity soon brought the next two.
Bubblicious came out in 1977 and touted as able to make the biggest bubbles.
Hubba Bubba was put out by Wrigley in 1979, and was advertised as a bubble gum that wouldn't stick to your skin. I pointed this out to my mother but she wasn't impressed.
Bubble Yum - and it's competition, Hubba Bubba and Bubblicious
Do you remember their heyday?
Great Stuff on Amazon
The Grown-Up Gums
Dentyne, Trident
When I first started trying out gum, I didn't like Dentyne or Trident. I didn't like the rectangular bars that weren't as sweet as what I'd grown used to. Even as I grew older, I preferred the "stick" gums to the little rectangles. Maybe I wasn't the only one, since Dentyne seems to have moved to the coated squares now.
Now it's not just Trident, it's Trident Layers, Trident Vitality, and Trident White.
Trident White and Vitality have also moved to the coated squares, but the Layers and traditional packs are still those same little rectangles.
Grandpa just called this, "That Squirt Gum" - And that's what I thought it was, until it came to our local store.
I really did like this gum, both the spearmint and the cinnamon. The gum stayed soft and maybe because of the gel inside, the flavor lasted longer than any other gum.
My Old and All-Time Favorites
Somewhere in the stick gums, was Fruit Stripe gum, with edible wrapping paper, The gum had stripes and different fruit flavors, but I never liked it much because the flavor didn't last long.
It was when we went on a plane trip that my good old dad would pull out the Double Mint gum to help our ears "pop" on take-off and landing. Even my mom would have either Spearmint or Double Mint in her purse for car trips. Every once in a while there'd be Juicy Fruit, but the flavor never seemed to last as long to me. All these years later, these gums make me think of my parents and the good times we had in our travel adventures.
Later, I'd become a big Big Red fan, and I still love cinnamon-flavored gum.
The packaging has changed, but they are still my nostalgic favorites.
