When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to send me cards, for my birthday, filled with a penny for each year I was celebrating (I was one of thirty-two grandchildren, so cash was never flowing out of the envelopes), balloons, and Fruit Stripe Gum.  My favorite item, out of all of these things, was the gum.  First and foremost, because I loved (and love) gum.  Also, Fruit Stripe gum contained sugar, which I was prohibited from consuming on my mother's dime, making it all the more enticing. 

Now, many, many years later, my mother is the Grandma who sends the envelopes to my kids.  Seth squeals, each and every time he sees the mail man, thinking that all letters contain "bum" from "Bayma" (gum from Grandma). "Seth, honey, that is the gas bill.  I'm afraid there's no gum in there"  I explain. Tonight, when I arrived home from a very long day of one thing after another, two of my children came running to announce that there was a package from Granny that smelled like mint gum.. and could they open it.  Even Lily, my teenager, was chomping at the bit...like a vulture encircling road-kill, sniffing the package...begging to get to its contents ( And, believe me,  she buys plenty of her own gum, people!)

Every once in a while I see Fruit Stripe gum somewhere, and I think of my Grandma, and how such a simple thing, like an envelope with gum, packed with such good intentions and love, can mean the world to a kid.  They did to me and they sure do for the four who reside under this roof.

So here's to Grandmas and Gum.