Harriet’s World

By HARRIET BISHOP

The other day a friend and I were talking about the fun things we used to do with our mothers. Of course I had to tell her my favorite story about my mom.
Everybody has heard of See’s Candy. My mother loved See’s Candy. She had a really big sweet tooth also. Mother didn’t drive. When I got my license I did a lot of the driving for her.
Well, Mother decided to buy my Dad a box of See’s candy for his birthday. He loved chocolate covered cherries, dark chocolate. She bought him candy a lot. I think it was because she could justify going to the candy shop. I ended up taking her shopping and of course we made a stop at the See’s candy shop to get a box of cherries for his birthday.
It was a hot August day and we went to the candy store last so the chocolate wouldn’t melt (in those days we had no air conditioners in the cars). We had to stand in line a long time. That made it difficult for my Mom because by the time they called her number, she was ready to buy out the store.
By the time we got back to my car, Mom was sucking on one of her favorite, carmel suckers and so was I. She was talking about how good she had been and how the girls were going to be so proud of her at her weight club, TOPS. She had bought a few suckers for herself but she had a one pound box of cherries for my Dad and a two pound box of assorted chocolates, light and dark. Of course I didn’t come out empty handed either.
I spent all the money I had left over and came out with about five pieces of my favorite candy in a bag. We had to walk quite a ways to get back to the car in the parking lot because I had parked under a tree for shade.
Well, to make a long story short the car wouldn’t start. We tried and tried and found that we were stuck fast until we could call home and get my Dad to come and help us when he got off of work around 4 p.m. that afternoon.
So we had a couple of hours to kill and no money and we were too tired to go anywhere so we just decided to stay where we were.
By now things were starting to get a little hot and we were starting to get tired etc. We had eaten all the suckers Mom had started on my candy that I had bought because it was melting. I was doling it out one piece at a time and we soon made fast work of that bag of candy. We were making wise cracks about the candy we were eating and mom was trying to justify eating all her suckers etc.
We had laughed ourselves silly and there was a lull in the conversation and a little time had gone by when my mother reaches into the bag of candy for my dad and pulls out the two pound box of mixed chocolates and says, “I think I’d better check this candy to see if it’s melting.”
She takes out the package and looks at it for a second or two then she says,”Oh heck, Dad won’t miss a piece or two.” I start to giggle and she opens up that box and we sat there and ate the whole two pound box of chocolates justifying each piece that we ate. Saying Dad would never miss it.
We laughed so hard and giggled so much our sides were sore. I can still see my mother with her little finger held out, tasting each piece of candy and if she didn’t like it giving it to me to try. Licking our fingers as if we had never had a piece of chocolate in our lives. I never had as much fun with my mother in my life as I did on that hot, August, day, eating candy and laughing ourselves senseless.
She ate two pieces to my one just as fast as she could chew them. She made me swear on my life, I would never tell my father or anyone else how much candy we had eaten on that day. I didn’t until she gave me permission to tell it.
To the best of my knowledge my Dad got a one pound box of See’s Candy for his birthday that year and my lips were sealed.
My mother’s name was Roberta Woodward Brandon. She has passed on now but I have this special memory to share. Well, that is my world until next time remember, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take…but by the moments that take our breath away!”