Hop down the Rabbit Hole of vintage postcard history!

This is my beloved, whimsical Mr. Gumdrop Man!

I know, it’s hard for you to contain your excitement along with me, yes?

I posted about this amazing ornament (which some think is made of rice crispies treats) a couple years ago, here it is again for posterity’s sake:

This is my favorite ornament of all time. Yes, yes, I know you’re thinking my taste is a bit odd, but for some reason I have a bizarre fondness for gumdrops. As a child, I had fantasies of living in a Gumdrop World, complete with Gumdrop Dogs laying in front of Gumdrop Fireplaces inside of Gumdrop Houses. The red ones are the BEST. Why do the candy colors that sparkle and shine through snow-covered sugary toppings captivate me so?

When I was about 4 or 5, my mom took me and David, my older brother to a department store where there was a huge ornament display. She told both of us we could pick out one ornament each. “Just one, Susie… just one.”

I don’t remember a bit of this, but my mom says that the moment I laid eyes on THE RED CREATURE, it was love at first sight. I snatched it up quicker than I could say, “Mine, Mine, ALL MINE!” greedily clutching it to my chest. How lucky was I? It was the ONLY ONE!

Mom didn’t want me to just settle for the first ornament that came along (most mother’s have a way of thinking this way) and encouraged me to at least look around and do some comparison shopping. No amount of cajoling could separate me from my new-found love. By the time we got to the cash register my knuckles were turning white, and the plastic sugar coating had made impressions in my tiny little fingers.

“Give the nice lady the ornament so she can wrap it up for you,” she said.

I eyed the cashier suspiciously… could she be trusted with such a treasure? I had just found my heart’s desire, and you want me to risk losing him? Mother must be NUTS!?

Mom recounted this story to me the first year this animation appeared in the interactive Advent Calendar way back in 1998. What prompted the re-telling? I asked her one night over dinner, “You know, that weird little gumdrop ornament is my favorite, and I have absolutely NO IDEA why.”

It really is true – first loves never die.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 at 11:51 am and is filed under Advent Calendar, Christmas Ecards, Funny Ecards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.