My grandfather has always loved gumballs, and one year for Christmas he was given an old-fashioned gumball machine that took pennies. Every time I visited them the gumball machine was full, and there was a dish of pennies next to it. Grandpa would ask me to get him a few, and I’d rush to the machine and put a penny in, to get a few gumballs for the both of us.

 

His favorite was always the white ones, which are mint, and mine was yellow, which I’m almost sure are banana. We’d chew them together, and he even taught me how to blow bubbles with them. Grandma and Grandpa live in an RV now, and the gumball machine has long been packed up and stored away. But I can’t go to a grocery store or candy store without seeing these familiar globes and thinking about afternoons with my grandfather, learning how to blow bubbles, and splitting up the flavors between us. ~ Jessie from Michigan