Are your parents still alive?

[YourCaptor]

My mom is alive, my father I don't know.

 

[DVS]

The best two people to ever walk this earth (biased opinion, of course) are both gone. But, on the lighter side, I like many flavors of gum. Clove is a favorite, if I could just find it. I guess I'm showing my age, there?

But, I like wintergreen, spearmint, etc. and even peppermint. There are some pretty flavorful gums out there. Extra, Ice, and even Dentine has added some good flavors.

I don't like sour flavors of anything, though. Things like Sweetarts are atrocious and anything else that makes my mouth squish up in a sour pucker. Yuck!

I have a package of spearmint gum and wintergreen gum in my possession at this very moment. And, I also have some spearmint flavored mints, too. Chewing gum and sucking on mints (non sugary only) are my ways to pass the time at work.

Now, I like the flavor of bubble gum, but I don't blow bubbles. It does nasty things to a mustache.

 

[Etoile]

agree with you on the wintergreen...yucky yucky. it's cinnamon and bubblemint only for me, hmph.

Bubblemint is THE BEST!

I didn't have a relationship with my birth father for any part of my life, but he died in 2005 of congestive heart failure. He was 50 when he died; he had his first heart attack at 28, so I know I have heart issues in my family history, but that's all I know about him. Oh, that, and his brother is a dick who forged a will because he was mad my father never wrote one and as a result I was supposed to get everything.

My mother is still alive; she's 62 but has a lot of health problems. Her mother died of Alzheimers so I'm a little worried about that myself.

 

[Bi_Kitty]

Everyone's alive still. Mother is healthy. Stepdad is healthy but disabled and has some mental problems due to getting hit by a truck on the job. Daddy is as healthy as a 55 year old man can be that drinks from the time he gets up until he goes to bed at night and has to go to work in the hay fields and/or building houses. And Daddy's live-in-girlfriend, well, her health is ... yeah, not that great, but it's all her fault doing drugs constantly and wondering why you have 3 strokes. Geez. I swear.

 

[rinka]

Still alive and married 41 years now.

There's usually a bag of Extra Eucalyptus around me.

 

[missymoomoo]

Mine are still living and both driving me fucking nutso. Also I like gum!

 

[PertPerth]

My real (adoptive, who raised me) parents are still alive - been married for 41 years.
My biological mother killed herself (aged 49) in January, and I've not met my biological father. Apparently he's still healthy and alive.

 

[ownedsubgal]

Now, I like the flavor of bubble gum, but I don't blow bubbles. It does nasty things to a mustache.

don't you know you're supposed to suck the bubble back in? that way there's no mess, and it also makes a really cool sucking sound that will annoy the people around you.

btw i have seen clove gum before...of all places at the Cracker Barrel restaurant, where they sell all the nostalgia candy and sweets. they have clove and licorice gum, both of which i tried, and both of which i had to immediately spit out.

 

[Netzach]

I am trying to get my hands on clove gum as a maybe smoking cessation aid for my Djarum-addict. I want to believe this will work, though logically I know it may not help and actually make things worse. The only upside is that I'll probably chew it myself.

 

[TeeR69]

My parents passed away within six months of each other. Peculiar since they had been divorced for over 30 years.

 

[Harmony_1985]

They're both alive and kicking.

I'd be worried if they weren't as I live with them LOL

 

[Tawny_Temptress]

Mine are both alive and I am very thankful for that. They are realatively healthy now but have had a lot of health issues in the past. I dont think either would live very long if the other died.

 

[unregistered]

 

[DVS]

don't you know you're supposed to suck the bubble back in? that way there's no mess, and it also makes a really cool sucking sound that will annoy the people around you.

btw i have seen clove gum before...of all places at the Cracker Barrel restaurant, where they sell all the nostalgia candy and sweets. they have clove and licorice gum, both of which i tried, and both of which i had to immediately spit out.

See, I'm not the best at blowing bubbles, so I'd spend most of my time picking the gum off of my mustache instead of perfecting the blowing process and sucking it back in. I guess I'll only annoy myself, then.

I'm going to have to look for a Cracker Barrel restaurant, to see if I can find some clove gum. I'll also forgive that you mentioned it as nostalgia candy, as if I'm old or something.

And while I TOTALLY agree with you on spitting out the licorice gum (who in their right mind would even make such a product? I don't like ANYTHING licorice flavored), I can't understand why you'd spit out the clove gum. I think it's great stuff. Maybe you have to be a certain age to like the taste?

But then I like Kipper Snacks and other Kippered Herring in a can, too. Not that fond of sardines, though, and I don't know why.

OK, before someone asks...no, I don't like fish flavored gum! Sounds like a penguin delicacy to me.

Speaking of nostalgia...anybody remember the old Ford's gum machines? They sometimes were on a floor stand, and sometimes they sat on a counter. There was a clear glass globe that showed all of the different colored gumballs and they cost a penny each. Personally, my favorites were the yellow and the green colors. I don't know what flavors they were, though. The white ones were pretty good, too.

It was sometimes scary putting your penny in though, because the black was licorice flavored.

When I was a boy scout, we sometimes went around filling those machines. Can you imagine how much free gum we chewed on those Saturdays? Ah, the good ol' days.

 

[Shankara20]

I was adopted at birth and consider those folks mom and dad. Both have been gone for over 30 years. I have no idea about my birth folks.

Dad died when I was a freshman in high school. Mom remarried between my sophomore and junior year, he died when I was a senior. She started shacking up with a fellow drunkard and he died about 4 years later. It then took mom about 12 years to drink enough to join them all.

Can someone give me some old fashioned Dentyne?

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Can someone give me some old fashioned Dentyne?

Here ya go, Shankie.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x95/Sir_Winston54/1511.jpg

 

[Shankara20]

Here ya go, Shankie.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x95/Sir_Winston54/1511.jpg

*chew*
*chew*
*chew*
*chew*

 

[FurryFury]

When my Daddy died, my Mother emotionally left me as well. Though her numerous suicide attempts have failed, she's not the rock of the family that she played and I thought she was anymore. She is the crisis maker now. I miss the old her, or the her I thought she was, dearly.

Of course now I see how she expected me to fix her messes even when I was a tiny child.

 

[Kajira Callista]

My father is gone. He took the life in my mothers eyes with him.
Sometimes I get mad at him for that...other times I understand it.

 

[EmpressFi]

my dad died when I was 12, my mom died when I was 23. My dad had lung cancer, my mom fell, broke her ribs and threw 4 blood clots on the day she was being sent home from the hospital

 

[Bandit58]

My dad passed away in March 2005, my mum is still living and just had her 73rd birthday this past Sunday.

Sir's father passed away in March 06, almost a year to the day of the anniversary of my dad's passing. His mum is still living.

Apart from the usual problems associated with ageing, both ladies are still going strong

And I hate gum of any description

 

[SimonBrooke]

I wanted to see, out of sheer curiosity, whose parents are still with us.

My Gods, you guys, all your families seem nearly as dysfunctional as... mine.

Elder sister's husband dead, of paracetamol taken while drunk, about five years ago.

Mum dead, about ten years ago; of a stroke at seventy nine, while working on another book... that's kind of a good one.

Little sister dead, about eleven years ago, of lung cancer, age 39, thirteen days after it was diagnosed. Left one surviving child, whose partner is currently dying of liver cancer.

Dad dead, about eighteen years ago, of post-operative shock at seventy-five; which wasn't a bad innings but the hospital where he died was horrible.

All my grandparents died before I was born, except my mother's father who waited until I was four.

 

[satindesire]

You know, they say that men die earlier in life than women do, and I'm starting to notice that trend in this relatively tiny poll as well. So many people have lost their dads, it's one of the most chosen poll options.

 

[graceanne]

tmi

sorry

 

[Homburg]

Both of my folks are still alive. My dad tried to correct that a coupla weeks ago with two heart attacks and a quintuple bypass. Fortunately, he lived in spite of himself. Hoo-rah for being a tough old dude.

ETA: I'm diffident about gum. I'm okay with it, don't get me wrong, and see it as an acceptable alternative mint delivery vessels when I can't find the mints I like. I am, however, utterly addicted to mints. I used to keep a tin of Altoids around, but have since converted to Eclipse Winterfrost flavour. They are getting hard to find, so I'm wondering if the company stopped making them. If so, there may be anti-corporate violence in my future.