The Bear and the Gum Balls

By Judy Borman Harding

My grandson, who was ten at the time, had come home from a play date with one of his California neighbors, excitedly telling our daughter that “Those people are really rich!”  My daughter knew the family he had visited was a family of modest means, so she asked him what made him think that.

“They have gum-ball machines in EVERY room,” he answered. 

When I heard this story, the wheels began to turn.  “Hmmm,” I thought, “So all grandpa and I have to do to make our grandkids think we are rich is to have a gum-ball machine in every room!”  So in preparation for the grandkids’ upcoming visit, I went shopping. Somehow, though, I couldn’t imagine fooling Alex into thinking we were rich, because our Rim home only has four rooms and adding gum-ball machines didn’t make it look particularly opulent.

  Then I saw it:  At a garage sale, I found one of those floor model gum-ball machines with three deep chambers, just the thing to impress a child.  In my attempt to appear rich, however,  I was considerably poorer after investing in the machine and all of the gum-balls to fill the three compartments.  Nonetheless, I was quite happy to set the machine on our front porch, where it would make a great first impression when the grandkids came to visit.  Well, that gum-ball machine made quite an impression, all right, and not just on the kids!

After our grandchildren (and a few neighborhood kids) had glutted themselves on gum-balls for a day or two, helping themselves to the penny pot I provided, Alex and his sister, Tessa, were sitting on our couch chatting, when Alex started screaming “Grandma, come look!  Come look!”  Art and I ran to the living room, glanced out the window, and saw..... A BEAR!  He was lumbering up our steps, his beady eyes fixed on the gum-ball machine.  As we all watched in horrified surprise, he whacked the machine as hard as he could and it crashed to the floor, breaking all three chambers.  Hundreds of gum-balls came skittering out, covering the porch in a gay carpet of yellow, red, blue and green.

Needless to say, that bear feasted!  For almost an hour he sat there, happily stuffing himself with the confections.  It was fascinating to watch him pick them up, with his prehensile grip, one by one, chewing blissfully.  After  he had eaten the very last one, with the exception of a couple he futilely tried to retrieve from a crack in the floor of the porch, he slowly dragged himself down the steps, turned for one last look, gave a satisfied roar, and disappeared into the woods.