Antique Gum

Back when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sooser were having their home run battle, I wandered into a baseball card shop. Hoping to pull McGwire’s rookie card, I purchased a pack of 1984 Topps for about 5 bucks. Well, to my surprise and horror, the stick of gum was still in there. At first, I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I couldn’t chew it, because it was unchewable. If I had dropped it on the floor, it would have split into tiny little pieces. But I couldn’t waste it. A 14-year old stick of gum was too rare and valuable. So, I did what any curious person would do. I ate it. It didn’t taste great, but there was a little bit of powdered sugar still on the top. It was like antique candy.

In case you are curious, the cards were awful. No Tony Gwynn or Cal Ripken, Jr. Heck, there wasn’t even a Joe Sambito. They were all commons. Also, the package opened up so easily, my guess is that someone had already gone through it, pulled the good ones, and had it resealed. Of course, the irony is that even I had pulled the Mark McGwire rookie card, that might not be worth $5 these days either.

Category: Musings