The McConnon's Man

Years ago, living in the country, we didn't get to town very often. Every once in a while the McConnon's man would stop by our house. I guess you could call him a "peddler". In his wagon he carried a variety of things, -groceries, medicines, spices, etc. We would look forward to his coming because we never had many people just stop in. Besides, he would always have a treat for us, -usually a package of gum. We called him the "Missus Man" because he always called our mother "Missus".

I remember mainly the treats he left for us. A package of gum wouldn't be a big deal for kids nowadays, but it was for us. Since there were 7 of us children, a package of gum had to be divided among all of us. So we each got half a stick. Gum was something we never got except when the "Missus Man" came. As a result, we made it last a long time. After chewing it all day, we saved it until the next day and the next. In order to not have gum all over the house, Mother had us line up our "chews" in the front of the spice shelf on our home made cupboard and sink, made by Dad. So as not to get them mixed up, we arranged them in the order of our ages. So we had wads of gum lined up on the spice shelf from time to time.

We arranged our gum according to our ages as we did everything else in our life. When we lined up for a picture, it was by age, just as we did when we ran to the neighbors across the road in a thunderstorm when we were alone, or when we lined up to come downstairs on Christmas morning.

As much as I liked to chew gum and looked forward to getting it years ago, I am not a gumchewer today. Probably this is true because during all my teaching years, (38 of them), I was forever waging a war against children chewing gum.