Juicy Fruit Gum
To this day, the smell of Juicy Fruit gum makes my stomach churn.
I suffered mightily from carsickness when I was a small child. That’s why my grandmother kept an eagle eye on me when we went on those rollercoaster car rides to their house in the hills of southern Indiana.
As we rose and sank and bobbed and twisted along the road, my grandfather whistled tunes through his teeth and my grandmother hung over the back of the front seat–Juicy Fruit gum in hand. Both puffed away on their Winstons. The minute my face started greening up, Ma-ma would unwrap a stick of that gum and insist that I chew it. They were convinced that Juicy Fruit would cure my carsickness.
Mother was the wise one in this matter. As we careened and bounced through those same hills (Fast! Mother had a lead foot and knew those roads blind), mother puffed away–and I slept. You see, this was the era when Dramamine came in liquid form only. Mother would give me my dose well before we left the house. The stuff was so incredibly vile-tasting that I’d be sick before we got near the car. Then I’d sleep.
I don’t believe anyone even thought about cigarette smoke adding to my discomfort. It was just a way of life at that time.
In my carsick days, smokers’ vehicles always smelled to me like, well, the end result of carsickness. Mine must smell that way now.
