I chews Bazooka

Do kids still chew bubble gum? I was quite the Bazooka enthusiast as a kid, much preferring it to the sweeter taste of Dubble Bubble. I enjoyed loading up on two chunks, maybe three, and blowing a bubble big enough to use as a weather balloon.

By the time I gave up gum, Bazooka had gummed up the works by adding flavors. How absurd! Bubble gum should taste like bubble gum! But here came "Strawberry Shake," "Cherry Berry," "Watermelon Whirl," and "Grape Rage."

I guess the kids that followed in my path had to try all these flavors out.

Of course, for your penny (!) you also got a Bazooka Joe comic! Beside priceless humor that was repeated in classrooms and playgrounds from Portland to Portland, the comics were worth prizes. How many packs of youngsters planned to chew how many packs of gum to get enough comics to get a free camera? And how many cavities did how many dentists fill?

Bazooka gum came out in 1947, in the days when there was chewing gum and bubble gum and not much else in the form of gooey mouth stuff. But now, there are dozens of gums and things such as Trident and Ouch and Thrills and Razzle, the candy that becomes chewing gum. So, they don't sell as much Bazooka as they used to, and when that happens, who's first to go? The people who make the comics!

Those artists and gagwriters were let go in 2012, when the firm announced that the wrappers would now include brain teasers and codes to unlock video games and whatnot.  But, like the original Chef Boy-Ar-Dee canned ravioli and Dr Pepper made with real sugar, all these products once consigned to the scrap heap are brought back eventually, and they say we can find the original good old Bazooka with (reprinted) original comics at WallyWorld and other fine retailers near you.

By the way, on the comic, where it said "Bazooka Joe and His Gang," that meant the following cast:

Pesty  - we always figured he was Joe's little brother. He wore a sombrero.

Mort - the tall lanky kid who covered his mouth with his turtleneck sweater

Toughie - a wannabe hood with a sailor hat. In the 50s and 60s, someone in every pack of guys wore a sailor hat, sometimes inverted like Gilligan

Hungry Herman -  Joe's husky pal

Jane - Joe's girl

Walkie Talkie - the doggie dogg (again, there was always one in the crowd)