Story by LaRose Karr
Oh, how I loved that Bubblegum Man. I had the great privilege to grow up in a small country church. It was a charismatic church and though I don’t attend that denomination anymore, I have a great respect for that church.
It was a church where there were no quarrels. Now, this can sometimes be rare in churches. Sometimes we lose sight of the big picture and have squabbles over wallpaper, decorating, differences of opinion, you name it. Christians are just like the rest of the world, they are imperfect people. I don’t have any memories of that at this church. I remember sitting in Sunday School class and teacher Glenda feeding us the word.
There were some great and good people who were the cornerstone of the church. They still go there some 30 plus years later. Farmers, teachers, grand people. And man, how they can worship. Last time I was there, they had a baby grand piano, a guitarist and a drummer. I knew they were gonna rock!
As a child, I’m afraid I wasn’t too alert in church. We had a clock on the back wall. I don’t know how far into the sermon I’d go to sleep but I’d awaken about noon.
I’d rouse and get up off the pew with drool on my face. I’d get my composure back for the last hymn. I don’t know how old I was before I sat through a church service without sleeping but I must have been close to the teen years.
The Bubblegum man is etched forever into my memory. He’d go to the store before church and purchase a sack full of those big, fat, pink, Double Bubble penny kind. After church, kids would immediately surround him. Some would come and ask, others would just stand in front of him until he reached into his pocket and handed them a piece of gum.
After about 20 years, he had to stop passing out Bubblegum. His memory wasn’t too good and some kids took advantage of that. They began coming back two or three times and he couldn’t remember who he had given gum.
Oh, how I still remember those kids flocking around him after church. I didn’t mean to cry while writing this story but the “Bubblegum Man” was my Dad and this is a great memory.
