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May 16, 2008 |
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SHARE YOUR POPSICLE
FOUND by Caitlin Duennebier
in A church in Connecticut
It was my grandmother’s funeral and my whole family was having some kind of reception in the basement that I think was also a makeshift Sunday school. My cousin, Jim, grabbed my sister and I and said, "Come on, let’s get out of here." Right when we were leaving I saw this small yellow square surrounded by other colorful squares with excerpts of politeness. It made me laugh a lot. We spent the rest of the evening making hermit crab castles on the beach down the street from my grandmother’s house.
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Read All About... May 28, 2007 |
I Hate Myself March 26, 2007 |
Ceiling Treasure January 15, 2007 |
Bad Frog August 02, 2007 |
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
» We're hopping on a plane and jetting to Europe for our Fall 2008 Euro Tour!
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I hope they're referring to those double popsicles, where you can break off a separate sicle, stick and all. Otherwise this could get kind of germy and slobbery. Ick.
I think it IS double sticks.
I find this affirming.It reminds me of learning good things in my neighborhood.
We really need to know what was on the other colorful squares! "Honor your donut and bagel" "You shall not covet thy neighbor's pie" Was this part of the Sunday School? Did grandma write these notes?
I'm off to stroll along the beach.
Its a glimpse into some politeness.
ride your bike.
use your feet.
save your gas.
hold the door
say please, thank-you
remember to flush.
Scratch Your Noodle
Hide Your Salami
Save Your Cherry
Butter Your Buns
Ahhh, the virtues taught our children in Sunday school. One day not too long ago, as my husband came to the classroom to pick up our six year old, her teacher called him aside and asked him, "do you use the word 'fart' in your house?" LOL He embarassingly replied yes, knowing that this lady was a savvy gal who would understand. She reported that our daughter, when asked in class what sort of things the devil didn't like for us to do to get closer to God, replied "he doesn't like it when we say excuse me after we fart." The teacher consoled my husband, saying, "It's okay, in my house growing up my grandmother had a saying, 'if ya gotta belch, belch, if ya gotta fart, fart!' " Suddenly sharing a single popsicle doesn't seem so gross anymore, does it?
I never got to know my grandparents. I wonder all the time whether I'd have thought them interesting. Or whether they'd have liked me. And now I'm wondering what they thought of popsicles and whether they'd have shared one with me.
According to the IceCream USA web site (manufacturers of the actual Popsicle), the treat "was accidentally invented in 1905 by 11-year-old Frank Epperson. Epperson left a mixture of powdered soda and water and a stirring stick in a cup on his porch. That night San Francisco experienced record low temperatures, and Epperson awoke the next morning to find a frozen pop that would eventually become a favorite American treat."
Then, in 1923, he "applied for a patent. The patent for frozen ice on a stick was issued August 19, 1924. Around 1925, Epperson sold the rights to the brand name Popsicle® to the Joe Lowe Company in New York. By 1928, Epperson had earned royalties on more than 60 million Popsicle® ice pops."
It's all there at:
http://www.icecreamusa.com/popsicle/history/
@ FARMER- You make me chuckle!!
@ LIBRARIAN- Thanks for the info! Very interesting, glad to know the story behind it all!
Mind your manners.
Think before you speak.
And finally...my PERSONAL fave: Make love, not war! (Somehow, I'm not too sure that those would go over that well, especially in church!)
I will not share my popsicle, and please don't share yours with me.
When the page first uploaded I thought it read "Shake your popsicle"! 0_o
We all occasionally need reminders to do the right thing. This is why I frequently put a sticky note on my forehead that reads "Don't call your co-workers a knucklehead."
Sadly, since it is on my forehead I can't actually see it, thereby rendering it generally ineffective.
I need me one of them frozen ice sticks!
Remember, kids - you may only share a popsicle with a friend if you wipe it down with a Clorox antibacterial wipe first, then gargle with Purell immediately afterwards.
As a side note, be sure not to breathe in the same room as other humans. In the unfortunate event that such exposure is unavoidable, disinfect your lungs by vigorously inhaling a can of Lysol.
And save your popsicle sticks for awesome craft projects! Summer's coming, kids!
I'm surprised you grammarians missed the obvious spelling error. It should read:
Shave your popsicle!
Defiantly a misspelling, but the error was with the last word. It should've been:
Share your poopsicle!
EW!!!! Who said that?!?!
The note is like a message from Grandma.
I feel the same way about certain songs that I associate with people I have lost; whenever they play, I feel like my loved one is there with me.
While the lesson behind the Post-it note is nice, the fact that we are seeing it at all means that the "finder" (if you want to call her that) stole this from a chuch Sunday school room during the reception after her grandmother's funeral.
The only time I've spent in Connecticut was on a plane that stopped to take on more people, so I can't make assumptions about the people there, but where I'm from stealing anything from a church is pretty darned low and shameful. And during her late grandmother's reception? That's pretty disrespectful to Grandmother's memory and I'm sure she wouldn't have approved.
If the note had been outside the church I wouldn't have climbed up on my soapbox.
Now, where's my coffee? ::grumblegrumblegrumble::
Reminds me of a most wonderful blog, 37 Days, where the author has posts like "Eat on A Door", "Dance in Your Car" and "Open Your Hand"
http://37days.typepad.com/37days/2006/02/open_
I think she'd appreciate the sentiment behind "share your popsicle". I do.
You can put this on the end of that addy
your_hand.html#more and that'll get you there. Or this:
http://tinyurl.com/5xl8br
Do they even make the double popsicles anymore? I never see them in the store and I am reduced to buying those sucky "single" popsicles. You can only share those with a select few.
Bammana popsicles are my favorite!
@Librarian -- I am pretty sure your grandparents would not only have loved you, but celebrated you every waking minute. It's been my experience that grandparents absolutely adore their grandchildren, without fail. Sure, there will be some exceptions, like Pepper, whose grandparents undoubtedly tortured him/her as a child, resulting in the f'd up mess we all associate with now, but...
And, thanks for the background on the tasty frozen treat.
So you STOLE this from church?
As I ruminated over the sunday school connection - I have decided that if the frozen ice stick had just been around 2000 years earlier - Jesus could have taken a couple and shared a cold treat with the multitude of 5000 after their meal of bread and fish.
1. They no longer make "double stick" popcycles.
2. Sharing is over-rated.
I really dislike bananas as a fruit, but I LOVE banana-flavored popsicles. I guess I am a processed food girl at heart. Don't hate me.
I wish I could accidentally discover a bajillion-dollar grossing heap of frozen (or non-frozen) deliciousness.
@ nadine- I associate certain songs/albums/movies/books etc. with certain people that I can't stand because it is what I was into when I was hanging out with them. You know, exes and moronic friends from high school and such.
Also... my spam question says "Mix yellow and blue paint and get what color?" Which reminds me of a funny story.
The other day one of my sixth grade students licked blue paint off of his finger. When asked about it he said, "Well it was blue and shiny and it looked deilcious. It was water-based, I read the label before I ate it so it won't hurt me. It just looked shiny and delicious."
Maybe I will just market blue shiny water-based paint as a new form of jam. Any takers?
i'll share my doughnut if you'll share your popsicle...hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
@Freonz freak in g hallucinations - I disagree. Everyone has their own way of honoring their loved ones. An evening on the beach may have been just how Grammy would have wanted them to spend the day.
Tess in Sac, they do so make double stick popsicles, here in canada, anyway. Maybe they don't make double stick popcycles, i dont know about that.
Please share your popsicle...with California. We're hot, about to burst into fuh-lames not just flames, fuh lames. I'm not saying it's because of that business with teh gays, but.
Oh, yeah. And the patent for frozen ice-cream was issued on my birthday. Too cool. Now I have something in common with ice-cream and Bill Clinton. Everything is connected, see?
Terrie, i'll share my popsicle with you. Are you sure maybe you don't want the whole thing? sounds like youre in dire straits.
I would LOVE to spend the evening making hermit crab castles on the beach :) Sounds lovely.
mmmmmmmmmmmm....frozen hermit crabs!
Popsicles are overrated.Never liked them never will.
@Freonz In CT. taking a piece of paper off the ground is not considered stealing, even if it was near a church.
Forgot to mention that when I first saw this Find all I could think of was the gay anniversary
note. Share "your" popsicle, indeed!!
I had a girlfriend dump me because I shared my popsicle. I now have a clear conscience.
@nadine, I don't recall saying anything at all about going to the beach.
@Smallbear, from reading the intro I did not get that the paper was on the ground. "Right when we were leaving I saw this small yellow square surrounded by other colorful squares with excerpts of politeness. " I take this as they were still in the building and this was removed from a (presumed) bulletin board.
I think this is a square of yellow construction paper, rather than a post-it.
@Freon: I pictured the colorful squares scattered on a table, not the floor or a bulletin board. I know what you mean about the Finds not really being Finds unless they were lost or discarded. That subject has been debated here lots of times. Sometimes the Finds or the stories behind them stir up emotions in us that we can't hide. And it's weird when everyone else is laughing and we're like, what's so funny? I've felt that way before. I think a lot of us have. Anyway, I just wanted to say that to you because it seems like no one else was listening, and I wanted you to know that at least I heard you.
Maybe we'll have a better Find tomorrow. 8-)
Oh, now I get why everyone was talking about sharing popsicles on the chihuahau anniversary card on the following find!
I love the story that comes with this. I wonder, was Caitlin a child when her grandmother died? It sounds like a long-ago memory the way she tells it. Did she keep this colorful square for all these years? What is a hermit crab castle?
.. 'scuse me, just goin' to the freezer to get a popsicle.. then I'll come back and read the comments.
I think a square of paper with handwritten politeness tips is fair game no matter where it's found. Even a church.
I saved popsicle sticks for years and years. Mostly I used them to dig tacky craft glue out of the bottle when the nozzle clogged. Eventually my daughter used a bunch of them for building a pioneer village for a school diarama. Some of them have riddles on them, which is funny because you see the punch lines sticking out here and there.
@Night in gale, thanks. :o)
@mlm - sucky is a particularly good adjective for popsicles.
I have a short story to share, about sharing popsicles.
My boyfriend smokes a pipe. One day, he was smoking, and I was eating a popsicle, and it was a really good popsicle that was tropical fruit flavored, so I decided to be nice and share it.
He sucked on it for a second, and when he gave it back, it tasted all gross and tobaccoey, like a fruity ash tray.
The moral of the story is: Share your popsicle... but not with someone who is mid-smoke. It will ruin the popsicling experience.
This brought back memories of holding half a popsicle for the family dog to lick...and watching her tongue flap back and forth because it was so cold! She enjoyed popsicles even more than icecream, but there was more mess factor because the icecream was always in a cup.
Brain problem, I hate to pop your bubble, but not *all* grandparents rejoice in their children. My mother's mother found us a nuisance in her nicely ordered, neat-freak existence. My mother perpetuated the trend, though she was an Olympic-standard slob (still rebelling against her mom, in her 60's!) of finding her grandchildren irritating.
And people wonder why I moved to Europe.
Thanks, Mona. I'm going to need a whole box, I think. And sorry, rest of California, get your own box.
I think way to many kids get ripped off in the grandparent department (such as my own). If my kids have kids, I'm going to be the coolest grandma ever. I'm going to adore my grandkids to pieces (not literal pieces, that would be disturbing).
You can still buy the double popsicles in the US too. Some friends of mine had a popsicle eating contest with them just the other day. One guy ate 22 popsicles! (11 doubles) It was pretty funny to watch.
Also, while i don't condone steeling from a church I think that the readers of FOUND learned more and got more enjoyment out of this little square of construction paper than the sunday schoolers ever would have. And frankly who teaches "share your popsicle" in church anyway? Aren't you supposed to teach "Jesus loves you" and stuff like that?
If you steal a tip on politeness (from wherever), does that make the stealing extra rude?
Reminds me of a guy who brought a shipment of Bibles into our city for free distribution at a booktable in the local street market. He parked the van near the street market and had the entire shipment stolen. He found this hysterically funny, because as he said, those Bibles would probably end up in the hands of people who would never see one otherwise!
Actually though, I am told the onionskin paper used in many smaller Bibles is popular among street people cuz it's fine enough to be used for rolling spliffs....
@Mona Lisa and Tess in Sac-
they make double popsicles (still not sure about popsycles)in america too!!
i remember because at my camp we always used to have them, and there was usually no lime ones left by the time i got one.
YAY, and no i will not share with you!
Grandparents are always a mixed bag. My mother (who lives about 35 minutes away) ADORES my son and never misses a chance to see him, whereas my husband's mother (who lives about 20 minutes away) never takes the time to see him. He's 4, and I think she's seen him about 10 times, total. According to my husband, she was never that great as a mother, either.
And, I guess I need to shop elsewhere in order to find double stick popsicles. Wal Mart doesn't have them, only the single stick. They're also now made with "real fruit juice", when all I want is the yummy, fake, sugar-laden kind!!
They sell twin pops at Food 4 Less, I bought some yesterday. They have two different bags. One bag contains: cherry, orange, blue raspberry--the other bag contains: root beer, banana, and lime. 18 popsicles per bag--$1.78.
@Terrie--I don't think we have Food 4 less here in Texas. Too bad, because those sound YUMMY!
This isn't in regard to any other comments. I just read the description of this find and it reminded me so much of my own writing style, even in a tiny paragraph, i had to say something. Not that i think my particular style is really good, just that it sounded exactly like the way i would describe such a situation.
I don't wanna. Get your own.
Sharing popsicles is unsanitary.