A SIDE TOPIC: ANYONE LOOKING FOR GUMDROPS?

My Funny Gumdrop Experience

My fifth grader is having a holiday celebration party in his class on Friday. This past Monday night, the room parent sent out an e-mail to request help and some extra items for the party. One of the things she needed help with was for some people to help coordinate two or three crafts for the kids. Although I am a creative person, I've never contributed an idea for a craft before. I do show up at all holiday parties, though, and help out with crafts. So I thought that maybe I'd offer out an idea this year. My idea: gumdrop pops!

The idea came from Martha Stewart's website, and the candy figurines looked really cute and easy to make. "Piece of cake", I thought. Wrong! I could not find gumdrops anywhere. After going to the candy store in the local mall, Walmart, Smart and Final, Michaels (where I did find a container of small ones), I still needed large ones. After all, the gumdrop pops needed to look like the examples on the paper. Yes, I will claim the perfectionist title. : )

The next day, I continued my journey to find gumdrops, and went to See's Candies. See's had to have them. Wrong again! I perused the store, in search of red and green gumdrops. All of the store clerks were busy ringing up orders. Finally, I got in the short line where you pay for pre-packaged boxes of candy. When I got to the cashier, I asked if they had gumdrops. She looked at me as though my question was unheard of. "No, we don't have them", she answered. I responded, "didn't you carry them in your store before? I thought for sure you had them in plastic bags with a bow on them." I guess I must have stated my question really loud, because in just that instant, the whole store made a roaring sound, and the discussions began. One lady answered, "the gumdrops can usually be found at Easter". You could hear others also claiming that red and green gumdrops once existed. Another lady answered, "try Walmart. I needed gumballs for my store, and I found a big box of them there, in all colors." Now, how did we go from gumdrops to gumballs? Anyhow, I left the store, amused at how gumdrops and gumballs became the topic of discussion just that quick!

My gumdrop dilemna was resolved, after spending at least 20 minutes at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, another mall store. The woman working there, who appeared to be the owner told me, "just go down to Long's or Sav-On Drugstore, and look for the off-brand candies. You will find gumdrops." She was right! I found at least three brands of them! Usually, I frown at the off-brands, but I've never been happier to see those off-brand gumdrops! My search was over, two days later. The funny thing about it is, the kids won't even care where they came from!