Flashback Friday # 86

Candy For Mom

Hello friends. Pull up a chair and join me as I spin another tale of mystery and intrigue (OK, maybe it will be another boring post about people that you don't know). Since Mother's Day is just around the corner, my Mom gets to be the star of today's post.

Mom used to work at a tile company in Westerville. It is now the largest manufacturer of handmade ceramic tile in America. Back then, it was much smaller (more on this company in future posts, since I worked some weekends there as a teen). She worked her way up from the trim tables into the office (along the way becoming the 1st woman forklift driver in the plant). Her job in the office was to call the various trucking companies to come pick up freight.

The trucking companies all wanted Mom to call them when she needed something delivered. How do you get on the good side with the dispatcher? Boxes of chocolates. At the holidays (some even knew Mom's birthday) they sent boxes of candy.

Mom loves chocolates. Her favorites are the nutty ones and the caramels. Forrest Gump says that "My momma always said that life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get". That was the thing that my momma didn't like. When you've got a hankering for a nut chew, the last thing you want is a lime creme.

That's why Mom's favorite box of chocolates was Whitman's Sampler. You didn't have to guess what you were going to get. all the various candies were diagrammed as to their location. Whenever Mom got a box of Whitman's, she would consume all the caramels and nut candies. All the cremes and the (egad) orange jelly candy were offered to me & my brother. He like the same ones that Mom did, meaning I got the remainder of the box. It's amazing how you can learn to like lime creme.

But what do if you don't have a diagram telling which candy is which? Do you risk taking a bite out of coconut? Consuming a cherry fondue? Not my Mom. She had a fool-proof way of telling what was what. She squished them. She figured that it's her candy and she'd squish if she wants to. If she didn't like what she saw, she didn't eat it.

Most people would throw away squished chocolates. Not Mom. She knew that she had a crumb crusher at home who would eat it no matter what it looked like. There is, however, a limit to the candies that I will eat. I don't think I would like any in the following sketch (and neither would my Mum)