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Allen Enlow Mr. Neuburger Eng Comp 101-137 9 September 2011 Narrative Essay Grandpas Gum Gum!! I would have to say that gum is the single most awesome invention in the world. I say this mainly because I would have never thought that something could be made to where it was edible; that could start as a solid piece of perfection, and then gradually transform its self into a stretchy, balloon blowing, way too much fun to play with when you are done piece of gum. All of this just in a matter of moments after chewing and savoring that juicy flavor of perfection. Though I love me some Juicy Fruit and Double Bubble, I must admit that I did not always have these feelings towards gum and all of its awesome counterparts. This is in loving memory of my great grandfather, Grandpa Nuggie. Grandpa Nuggie, pronounced (new-g), got his name from the original Nuggie, me. It was the nickname given to me by my great grandfather, and it stuck so every time I was around him I was called Nuggie or Pooter, which was another fantastic nickname that I still get the pleasure of hearing every now and again. Anyway, when I was around the age of four or five and my use of the English language was not all that great, I thought everybody was called Nuggie, so I just began to call him that. Over the course of the next year or two we came to be pretty close, and I always tried to do the same things he did. For example, when he watched baseball on the tube, I sat next to him in an adjacent chair and pretended I knew what was going on. When he would go outside to

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work on the garden by pulling weeds or picking ripe tomatoes, I would try to help by eating some of the tomatoes as if it was supposed to be beneficial to him in some weird way. No matter what it was that he was doing, I wanted to be there to watch, observe, and learn from him. So of course just like any other little kid who looks up to an adult and watches their every move by studying them and always copying every little thing that comes into detail, I eventually began to notice that he always carried a fairly large, silver and red package of gum wrapped up in a sort of rectangular shape that was tucked in the left inside pocket of his brown Carhart coat. In order to be just like him, the next time my Grandma was going to go to the grocery store I insisted that I get to ride with her. In that car and at that time it felt like I was going to die having to ride for an eternity, a whole ten minutes, but I stayed strong and thought to myself it will be worth it. In the end, I hung in there and live, barely. The impatient child I was I jumped out of the car and headed to the front door of the store in full throttle before the car had even come to a complete stop. I failed to enter the store through the large glass door with a thud because it was a pull and not a push, and as soon as I regained a little of my composure by shaking my head, I looked in every direction to make sure nobody had seen me. I slowly opened the door as smoothly as I could and as soon as my black shiny fake-snake skin boots hit the floor of the general store I took off running, darting from isle to isle searching for the infamous candy isle for the candy isle had the one object that was most dear to me Big League Chew, which more or less was just bubble gum that had been shredded into thin pink strips of awesomeness wrapped inside a somewhat rectangular, silver and blue package. I then began to carry in the left side pocket of my jacket, coat, or even in my left side jean pocket.

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Being so proud of myself for gathering such an item all by myself, I marched victoriously through the store until I found the nearest counter so I could purchase my loot. Unfortunately, I could not, but thankfully Grandma was following not too far behind to buy it for me. All I could think about was going to Grandpa Nuggie and showing him what I had obtained. Once arriving back at my Grandpa Nuggies house I ran to the front door and banged on it as obnoxiously as I could so that he would let me in, and I could show him that we were just alike. Even though the door was unlocked I did not know this information Grandpa Nuggie came running out to the door with a bewildered look across his face to see who in the world was interrupting his baseball game. At first, he did not even see me since I was under his line of vision but then a small smirk crossed his face as he looked down inviting me to come in and watch the game with him. We sat down in the spots where we normally did when we watched baseball, and just sat there quietly not speaking a single word. We sat there enjoying the others company letting the sun fill the living room with its tiny bright rays of light warming our skin as it passed through the shades that hung loosely in front of the windows. Sitting there quietly just watching him and how his face changed every time a bad call was made by the ump or when the team he was rooting for made a great triple play. In this trance, I almost did not notice that he had his gum out and was putting some in his mouth, at the time I did not stop to think that maybe my gum was not the same as his since his was a different color and had a stale smell that I was not used to. I used this time to open and pull out the small silver and blue package from my left inside pocket of my jacket. Lifting it up into the air as high as I could to show him how I had the same thing as him, he just looked at me with a certain air of question on his face but only for a second until it finally registered in his mind what I had done. His facial expression had then

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changed to more of an interested look but with a small hint of amazement of how I could watch him so closely and copy all that he did so accurately. We then went back to just sitting quietly watching the game. Then, Grandpa Nuggie lifted up an empty cup that he had always had sitting next to his recliner and spit a large amount of smelly black liquid into it; this I did not understand. Why did he have to always spit into an empty cup every so often? So, without really thinking about it I began to rummage through the house until I found the perfect empty bottle to use to copy him. I sat back into my chair that was dedicated just for me to watch baseball and spat a huge gob of pink fruity smelling juice into it. I had never done this before, so I was not exactly very smooth at it and got the sticky juice all over my shirt and hands barely getting anything in the cup itself. I had to then leave to go to the bathroom to wash myself up a bit. After being in the bathroom for probably around ten to fifteen minutes, I walked back into the living room where I found that Grandpa Nuggie was not there. I searched everywhere for him inside the house and figured he must be outside working in the garden. I flung open the front door and ran through the yard headed for the garden at full speed. When turning the corner around the fence I ran right into his belly with a loud smack, landing on my back into the hard compact dirt. I looked up at him in a dazed expression to see him chuckling and then reaching down to grab my arm. He helped me up as well as dusted me off, and afterwards we just stood there in the front yard absorbing some rays. He then opened his coat up and offered me some of his gum. Nonetheless I took it and threw it in my mouth greedily and started chewing it as fast as I could ready to expect some huge splash of juicy, fruity flavor to hit my tongue and instead began to start gagging, choking, struggling to breathe. I was spitting out the large black blob of disgusting gum he had given me. I learned there what people meant by a knee slapper because

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Grandpa Nuggie was just laughing his butt off as hard as he possibly could without maybe throwing up a lung or something. I would have to say that my Grandpas gum was not gum at all but some kind of chew that was not and still to this day kid friendly in any way shape or form. This is dedicated to all of you children to never trust your piece offering grandparents because it is a TRICK! As a result I began to be more cautious when accepting things from my Grandpa Nuggie and from there on was not a particular fan of any kind of gum, especially anything that was in a rectangular shaped package that had any silver or blue or even red just to be on the safe side. (In loving memory of G-pa Nuggie)