Sugar Rush

At Grandma and Grandpa's Place.....

...there were always a lot of sweets....not necessarily for us. Mostly for Grandpa. But he always shared.

Grandpa had a massive sweet tooth. As a matter of fact the sweets had claimed most of his teeth and for many years when I was little he had only his two eye teeth left (and he was only 50 years old!). He finally lost those too and got a nice set of false teeth....that he only wore to church and for eating meat. But I digress.

Grandpa should have owned stock in Hostess. He loved Hostess pies the best but he appreciated all of their products. There were always half eaten pies wrapped up and laying on top of the fridge, accompanied by one of those two packs of the square cinnamon rolls with the gooey cherry filling in the middle. What are those called? Next to them there would most likely be a few candy bars, too.

But one of Grandpa's all time favorites was the Oreo cookie. He ate Oreos every single day. He would break 4 or 5 of them up into an aluminum glass filled with cold milk and then eat the whole soggy mess with a spoon. (I still eat my Oreos that way to this day.) He loved Oreos so much that we started giving them to him for Christmas. What else did he need? What else would he enjoy more? Someone even gave him an Oreo throw pillow that looked just like the blue Oreo package, that adorned his chair for years.

Then one day he just stopped buying them. He went cold turkey. We couldn't believe it. Where were the Oreos!? They had gotten too expensive. Yep. If there was anything Grandpa loved more than sweets it was a bargain. And despite his great love for that creamy center he wouldn't over pay for it. So that was it. I never saw him buy an Oreo again...and we're talking years with no Oreos.

(Of course we are talking about the man who only 2 years ago bought a motorcycle that only had one handle bar because it was a great deal. He claimed he could find a one armed man to buy it off of him.) His search for cheap forms of sugar took him down many paths actually.

I was there in person for his experiment with diet soda. Grandpa's drink of choice was always Pepsi. He called it his "medicine" and made a great big "ahhhh" sound after each swig. But Pepsi wasn't on sale this particular week, Diet Pepsi was. So what is any cheap sugar-aholic gonna do? Buy Diet Pepsi and put sugar in it, of course.

Yes, long before Diet Coke and Mentos was ever thought of, I saw what a tablespoon of sugar dumped in to a bottle (remember glass soda bottles?) of Diet Pepsi would do. It was like he'd been shaking that bottle for half an hour. It immediately started fizzing and spraying all over Grandma's kitchen. Of course Grandpa thought that was hilarious. I wonder what he did with the other 5 bottles in the pack? I'm sure he didn't drink them. Diet and Grandpa did not get along at all.

Despite his great love for all things sweet, when asked which food he would choose if he knew he could only eat one thing for the rest of his life his reply was, "Gravy."


On This Date In 1979:
There were no entries in Grandma's diary for November 1st through November 14th. It was the middle of harvest and Grandma was busy with her classes, I guess. So here is the entry from October 29th, 1979:

"Washed clothes and took care of the kids (my sister and I). They ate dinner with Bill at the field. They played out a lot and took a long nap. Tim picked 1100 bushel of corn, Shannon hauled for Irvin Sager."