I hope everyone had a great Labor Day. I spent a quiet day with my grandson and his wife. It was relaxing.
While I looking through some of my Depression-era recipes, I was in the grocery store the other day and made an observtion. At the check out line, there it was - rows and rows of gum - breath freshners, fruit-flavored, anything and every thing.
In my day, there was no such thing as purchasing gum. We waited in anticpation for for the road crews or construction crews to lay down a fresh coat of tar. When it was slightly cool, we use to break off chunks of the bubbly stuff and chew it for hours.
It's not the asphalt you lay on roads today, but honest to goodness tar. We had a free stash, as long as we didn't get caught. Ask your parents/grandparents. They'll tell you. Then e-mail me, I'd love to hear their stories.
I guess old man Wrigley must have been paying attention. He made his fortune on transitioning the tar chewing generation into the gum chewing generation.
That was back in the day when poor was poor.
Hello Betty,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your blog. I expect that your winsome stories, and recipes, will draw plenty of readers.
I enjoyed your story about chewing on freshly laid tar! What a point you made about old man Wrigley adopting and adapting this idea for mass consumption.
I grew up in post-WWII England where sweets, sugar and practically everything good was rationed, and many former service men, like my father, were unemployed. Eventually, he lost everything - our house, money, and even his family.
These are also hard times but nothing in comparison to the Depression or post-war in Europe. I'm in my late sixties, jobless and broke, but I know that I will find a way to make a go of it. If I can, so can others.