Who decided that raspberry flavor is blue, anyway?

I just got mail from my friend Xine. She said she's sick and her husband is out of town so her kids are "watching way too much TV and eating soooooooo many Otter Pops."

Oh MAN, her kids are so LUCKY!

I grew up in the '70s in Southern California so you'd better believe we never had anything as exotic and fabulous as Otter Pops at our house. We had homemade yogurt, and the all-natural unprocessed peanut butter that gets hard as a rock in the fridge, and sugar-free bubblegum, and orange juice popsicles that you made yourself with the Tupperware popsicle mold. I had friends whose mothers bought packaged cookies or Sugar Smacks (can you believe they actually called it that?!) cereal or Kraft Macaroni and Cheese from a box, or Hostess Fruit Pies, but except for the occasional visit or sleepover when I could eat these wondrous foods myself, I just looked on enviously when my friends opened their lunchboxes.

My friend Xine with the TV-watching, Otter Pop-eating kids was even more deprived than I was when she was growing up. Her mother was told Xine was hyperactive so she kept all kinds of crazy things on the "forbidden unless you can sneak it at a friend's house" list. "No artifically-orange cheddar cheese for you, missy! You want an apple? Here's a Granny Smith. The red ones have dye on the skins. Yes I'm sure all the other kids get peanuts on Halloween instead of candy."



See how we compensate as adults? Xine keeps Otter Pops handy for emergencies, and I keep cake mix in the pantry because I'm a grown up and I can make a cake from a mix instead of from scratch if I feel like it. Plus, I might have to go out and track down some of those Otter Pops for myself.

So there.

(Photo by Rachel Denny from this adorable story)