Some childhood memories are attached to things that barely lasted long enough to become possessions.
Dubble Bubble is one of them.
It was bought, chewed, stretched into bubbles, and eventually disappeared. Yet the packaging, color, flavor, and ritual remain recognizable decades later.
That’s the remarkable thing about American Material Memory. The physical object doesn’t have to survive for the memory to survive. Sometimes the thing that disappears fastest leaves one of the strongest impressions.
From the Artist:
I chewed a ton of Dubble Bubble playing for the Dodgers in Algonac Little League.
I also remember Brian Wilson reaching up and catching a ball I'd hit just as it was about to clear the centerfield fence. That would have been my first home run.
Then during practice my coach told me to stop backing away from the pitch and lean in.
The next pitch hit me square in the eye. He laughed and said, “I didn't say you couldn't duck.”
Somehow that's what a piece of bubble gum brings back.
Not the flavor. The people.
Some childhood memories are attached to things that barely lasted long enough to become possessions.
Dubble Bubble is one of them.
It was bought, chewed, stretched into bubbles, and eventually disappeared. Yet the packaging, color, flavor, and ritual remain recognizable decades later.
That’s the remarkable thing about American Material Memory. The physical object doesn’t have to survive for the memory to survive. Sometimes the thing that disappears fastest leaves one of the strongest impressions.
From the Artist:
I chewed a ton of Dubble Bubble playing for the Dodgers in Algonac Little League.
I also remember Brian Wilson reaching up and catching a ball I'd hit just as it was about to clear the centerfield fence. That would have been my first home run.
Then during practice my coach told me to stop backing away from the pitch and lean in.
The next pitch hit me square in the eye. He laughed and said, “I didn't say you couldn't duck.”
Somehow that's what a piece of bubble gum brings back.
Not the flavor. The people.
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