Bubble gum was one of the basic food groups for young Boomers. We grew up with the sticky stuff. It was a go-to sweet treat and it was cheap, just a penny. The Mom & Pop stores always had a jar on the counter. Reach in, grab a piece, lay down a penny and start chewing. Boomers became adept at blowing bubbles. A girl from Fresno, California, by the way, holds the world’s record for a bubblegum bubble at over 26-inches in diameter.
However, it was a strict no-no to chew bubble gum in class because the teachers knew that it would ultimately become a bubble-bursting endeavor and disrupt the academics. Boomers, you see, delighted in popping the bubbles of fellow chewers, causing gum to be stuck on eyebrows and faces.
But the big question facing young Boomers was which gum to buy. There were three major brands at the time – Fleers, Double Bubble and Bazooka. Each had it’s own distinct flavor and all were equally proficient in bubble performance. Bubble gum selection was a matter of personal taste – and prizes.
Fleers was founded in 1885. It was the first gum to come in the color pink. The company made a foray into sports card business as far back as 1920, but that market belonged exclusively to Bazooka, which also manufactured Topps bubblegum – the giant in Baseball Cards. Topps was the worst tasting of all the bubble gums in flavor, sorta’ blah, but it came with baseball (and football) cards, and somebody had to chew it. Being a fanatic card collector, I always had stacks of the flat rectangular gum on hand. Neighborhood kids would often sometimes stop by, knowing I was an available supplier. I gave the stuff away.
When it came to my personal favorite, flavor-wise, it was Double Bubble. This was the sweetest of the bubble gums. It was usually rock hard out of the pack and tough to get started and to make chewable, but once you had gnawed on it for 5 or 10 minutes, you could blow amazing bubbles and it retained flavor longer than the other gums.
The third choice was Bazooka, which brings us to Bazooka Joe, a comic strip character who sported a black eye patch. Why? No one really knows, but he was the star of the folded comic strips that came in each piece of gum. Over the years, there were 75 different Bazooka Joe wrappers to collect.
The wrappers each contained an adventure with Bazooka Joe and his friends – Mort, Hungry Herman, Jane (Joe’s girlfriend) and others. The comic had a small advertisement in the corner for various products. It also had a corny kids’ joke and a fortune, like a fortune cookie, only funny.
Bazooka had a great flavor and blew a decent bubble. I only wish now I had collected all of the Bazooka Joe comic strips. I would be able to buy a lot of bubble gum with the value of that collection.