Sunday, January 10, 2010
5:56 AM
Sometimes Candy Bars Make Me Cry
The Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar has forever been my favorite candy bar of all. Just looking at this picture makes my chocolate-loving mouth start to salivate. lol (ice cold from the fridge is my favorite) But, as with all things I post here, this candy bar also brings back warm childhood memories, the most significant of which is the famous Bernie and Maddie Christmas Candy Bar-Related Story. : )
I have a very vivid memory of my mom buying a 6-pack of these candy bars for us one December, which, to us kids, was a very, very big deal. Six candy bars all at once, meaning three each? Yes, please. : )
Now, the candy bar didn't really have anything to do with the memory it inspires, at least not directly. But it's a part of it just the same.
One night, while Bernie and I were in the living room watching Green Acres on television, my mom told us she was going to wrap some more of our presents. Bernie and I LOVED the way my mom would wrap something new every single day during December so that every day when we got home from school, there would always be something new under the tree. So when our mom would also wrap yet MORE presents in the evening, we got REALLY excited. Bernie was better at hiding his exuberance than I was. I would always spaz out which made my high-strung mom crazy. lol So that particular night, she used those Hershey bars in the fridge to bribe me under control. lol She told us we could each have a candy bar if we agreed to stay in the living room so she could do her wrapping without one of us sneaking back there to take a peek. I was dying for one of those ice cold candy bars so I quickly agreed. Bernie, always the tricky one, also took a candy bar but he figured out a way to have his candy and eat it too, so so speak. lol
We sat in there watching Green Acres, listening to the sounds of mom wrapping gifts. We could hear the paper rattle and we could hear the tape being ripped off of the roll. Back then, she used the kind of bows that poked through the boxes, rather than bows that had to be taped on, so we had learned to listen through the whole process so that we'd know when she was finished with each package. I would slip down the hall as far as I could without being detected to see if I could catch a glimpse of the gifts pre-wrapping stage. But once I heard that bow pop on, I knew I had only seconds to get back into the living room before she caught me and "took the gift back to the store", which was always the threat she made but never followed through on. LOL Bernie played it cool, though. Of course, he wanted to know if I saw anything while peeking but he wasn't prone to settling for only that. Bernie was braver than me when it came to the Christmas peeking game. As a result, he usually knew everything that he and I were getting long before Christmas Eve. lol
So that night, Bernie sat quietly and patiently in the chair in front of the t.v. (which also gave him the best view of our parent's room, and waited for his opportunities. As soon as mom would drop a couple of newly-wrapped gifts off under the tree and head back to her bedroom to do more, he's listen carefully for the sound of more wrapping paper. Once he heard that, he knew she would be busy for at least 4 or 5 minutes wrapping another gift because she was a perfectionist when it came to wrapping and she took pride in her work. She still does. lol As soon as he heard that, he would jump down, grab his newest gift, and as quick as a jackrabbit, he would carefully and meticulously remove a piece of tape so that he could peek inside and see enough to know what was inside. Then, he would masterfully press the tape back onto the precise place it had been before and put the gift back where mom had left it. Before she could get back into the living room with anothe gift, he would already be back up in his chair, looking as though he hadn't budged all night. LOL I don't know how he did that but the whole scenario used to fascinate me to no end. LOL
Not a Christmas has gone by since I reached adulthood, that I haven't thought of that night. I also think about it every time I see a Hershey bar. Those are the priceless, innocent times you can never get back. Once they're gone, they're gone. But that doesn't stop me from remembering and wishing every time the season rolls back around. Once upon a time, there was a sweet little family who lived in a cute little brown and white house on M****** Street. They made a lot of memories, cried a lot of tears, laughed a lot of laughs, and dreamed a lot of dreams. Somewhere along the way, they got separated and lost. So the littlest one prayed every night, and hoped that they'd all find one another again before the clock stuck midnight and their dance upon this earth was done. But sometimes, all the love in the world is just not quite enough to get you home.
We miss you, Daddy. And we're so thankful that you're still here, Mama.
Please don't ever go away. Your kids adore you and there'll never, come a time when we don't need you.
From my blog, to God's ears.