Candy Coated Memories

Mark & I were driving back a few weekends ago from Ohio and we stopped off to get some gas. Knowing that we were going to need a sugar fix (we were both exhausted) I started looking through the impressive aisle of candy : )

Looking through the varieties of candy bars, M&M's, and bubble gum, I came across the above package of gum. Now to some, this is just a regular 'ol pack of gum with the juicy goodness of watermelon that reminds many of their more youthful days. But to me, and I'm sure the same goes for my brother and sister, it brings a great deal of memory too...

When we were just little ones, the 3 m's, we would travel to a quaint little town in Pennsylvania. Derry is where my Granma & Granpa Harnish (my mom's parents) lived, and where my mom had grown up. One of my first memories of going to their house for a visit involves Watermelon Bubble Yum.

(Let me quickly clarify the spelling of their names... we never pronounced the D in granDma or granDpa, so we never spelled it that way with them... it was our special thing)

When we would pull up in front of their little brick home at 143 E. 2nd St., the 3 of us would rush out of the car in a race to the front door. With a quick peck on the lips to Grandma, we were off to their kitchen, where Grandpa's desk was waiting (which happens to be the desk I'm sitting at as I type this). It was a race to see who could get there first and open the top right drawer... which held our surprise (although we knew it would always be there, so it wasn't really a surprise I guess). 3 packages of Bubble Yum, in different flavors (I always tried to get the Watermelon before Mark or Molly got to it), each with a few dollars rubber banded around them. You would think our parents never gave us candy by the way we reacted!

My poor grandparents... we barely even acknowledged them before we sprinted past to get our prize. But they didn't care. That small gift from them filled us with such joy, that they just stood observing, smiling, waiting for us to finish stuffing our mouths with gum.

I hope that someday Mark & I can leave such sweet memories with our grandchildren too. And you never know, they may find it in the smallest of places, like in the top drawer of a very special desk.