It all started the night of my last blog post. It was late and my sweet tooth was wide awake. I’m not much of a “sweets” person but a hot, gooey, melty chocolate chip cookie from the oven sounded pretty good. And in “a cookie”, I mean FIVE!
I have a tub of Pillsbury cookie dough in my refrigerator. It is the bane of my existence! I am having the same relationship with that damn tub as I have with my computer or my sewing machine or pretty much anything else that doesn’t work when it should … one of love/hate.
So, after baking and eating said yummy delights, I needed to brush my teeth well. I didn’t need any residual cookie (albeit goodness) anywhere attacking my pearly whites. So, there I was getting ready for bed and I pulled out the tube of toothpaste from my cabinet. The last time I was at the grocery store, I grabbed a new box of toothpaste off the shelf and threw it in my cart. I’m a Crest gal and without my reading glasses on – one Crest box’s graphics look like another’s. If it has the name Crest on it – it goes home with me. Well, what I didn’t know – until I squished some out onto my toothbrush and popped it into my unsuspecting mouth – was that I picked up a tube of “Kids Crest” … which is, omg, BUBBLEGUM FLAVORED!
My initial reaction was, “Gadzooks … it’s Bazooka!”
And then … why would anyone buy this? How many tubes are sold a year? (There I go counting things again!) Who came up with this and why did they think this was a good idea? And why, for God’s sake, is the “Kids” part of the logo so tiny that it kind of blends in with the Crest letters, making it all too easy to miss that part and take it home and use it (at least once).
So, there I was with a mouth full of bubblegum toothpaste and instantly I was transported to some Halloween of yore when getting bubblegum – specifically Bazooka – was such a treat. Dubble Bubble was okay … but Bazooka was the best! Not only did you get pliable, somewhat long-lasting, chewy bubblegum (and big bubbles) … but you got a COMIC, too! (Keep in mind that I’m a child of the late 50s and it was a simpler time! So, this was a thrilling inclusion!)
All of this flashed in my brain in a nanosecond of thought while my taste buds were trying to figure out if they were supposed to be delighted or repulsed! Was I to chew this mouthful of toothpaste or spit it out as soon as I was able?
And it all made me wonder about that gum but even before the thought of gum entered my mind … I thought of the downfall of society! Why did we always have to make things so cushy-easy for our kids and future generations? When I was a kid, we didn’t have bubblegum flavored toothpaste and we turned out pretty good! We brushed our teeth with nasty baking soda powder cupped in our hand and mixed with a little water (from a stream or if we were lucky a hand pump at a well). We did so with horse hair bristles that got stuck in our teeth … while walking 5 miles to school every day, after getting up at dawn and doing hours of daily chores … in 2 feet of snow … uphill … both ways … 24/7/365.
Okay – so maybe that’s not believable. I get it. I grew up in Chicago and there were no hills. But also no bubblegum flavored toothpaste.
After I got over the shock of the flavor (and I spit it out) – my mind quickly went to that good ol’ Bazooka bubblegum.
When was the last time I had a piece? Why was there a comic wrapping the piece of gum? Who made up those little blurbs? Why was the guy named Bazooka Joe? And why, for God’s sake was he wearing a turtleneck sweater all the time? Who, besides Waldo (of “Where’s Waldo” fame) and Diane Keaton wears a turtleneck 24/7? And is this yummy bit of chewy goodness still around today? So – I did a little research.
Here are my findings:
We can thank Walter E. Diemer for inventing bubblegum in 1928 (by accident during a work break) while working for the Fleer Gum Company. His original concoction was an unappetizing gray in color so – he added red food dye (the only color he had on hand) and it turned the gum pink. This gum became known as Dubble Bubble and opened the floodgates of bubblegumdom. He was 93 years old when he passed in 1998.
Originally a Topps Chewing Gum Company product, Bazooka bubblegum started production in 1947 but was repackaged with the Bazooka Joe comics (Bazooka Joe and his GANG/as they were referred to … consisting of seven different characters) and new colored wrappers in 1953. I couldn’t find anything that explained why they decided to wrap the gum in a comic or the origination of the name. But it was novel and I imagine it brought in a lot of sales. Woody Gelman and Ben Solomon were the brains behind the first comics and Wesley Morse was the original artist. There are 1535 different comic-strip wrappers … dating from the beginning until sometime in 2013 when they were discontinued. These comics contained silly, childish jokes … ads for “must have” merchandise like pop-guns and Sea Monkeys … and a fortune at the bottom (akin to what is found in fortune cookies). Remarkably, they are now collectibles.
In 2012, due to a decrease in sales, Bazooka Candy Brands (then owner) announced they were discontinuing the comic wrappers. They did however make a new wrapper that would include brain teasers, instructions, and codes that could be used to unlock videos and video games (oh, changing times!). Bazooka Joe and other characters would appear on the new packaging from time to time.
Strauss-Elite took over the brand in the 1980s and Bazooka bubblegum is still in production today. And, as gross as it sounds … there is also Bazooka flavored marshmallows as well as flavored milk! Ew!
So, there you have it. The incomplete history of Bazooka bubblegum! And, what was the most profound bit of info I learned? … that Bazooka Joe was NOT the character in the turtleneck! What??? Joe was the kid with the baseball hat on and an eye patch! What was with that? Was he a ball playing pirate? Why the patch? And all these years I thought Joe was the “other” guy! Huh!
Hopefully you are now enlightened about bubblegum … and all because I grabbed the wrong toothpaste! Chew on!