When I was in grade school, every year the school would inevitably send me home with something to sell as a fund raiser. They were adamant that we all HAD to do it. I would take my fliers home and hand them to my mom, who would humph and agree to purchase something.
We lived out in the country, so going door to door in our neighborhood wasn’t an option. I would have had to battle barbed wire fences and huge dogs. My parents were never too keen on asking their friends to buy things for me either, so I would usually end up taking my flier back with the one item my mom agreed to buy marked on it.
One particular year, however, they sent me home with a whole box of candy bars, and again I had no option. I’m sure my family bought a couple, but my mom told me that I would just have to take them back. I threw the box of chocolate on top of a pile of clothes on the overstuffed chair in my bedroom. As I added clothes to the pile, my candy bars got buried, and I forgot about them until it was time to take in our money, or in my case, the nearly full box of candy bars.
When I fished my box out from under the clothes, I was shocked to find a hole in the bottom. I pulled a candy bar out, and the wrapper had been chewed through and the chocolate was bitten and scratched. A mouse had found the chocolate on my chair! As I pulled each candy bar out, sure enough, they all had holes at the bottom. Worriedly, I took the box to my parents. “I guess we’ll just have to pay for them,” said my mom, resigned.
Well, what looked totally bleak turned into a great thing for me! I couldn’t just throw all those good chocolate bars away. I got to eat them, breaking off the chewed parts on the ends, of course!
One day I took a candy bar with me on the school bus. I was sitting by one of my best friends, Eva. Ever the prankster, I asked her if she wanted a piece of my chocolate. “Sure!” Neither one of us ever turned down candy. With a twinkle in my eye I handed her the section at the bottom that had been chewed on. When she was just about to put it in her mouth, I cried, “Stop! Don’t eat it. A mouse chewed on it!”
“Yeah, a big mouse named Esther!” she retorted and popped it into her mouth! I stared big eyed, completely wordless for once. Her chewing slowed as she noticed the look of true horror on my face, but what could be done about it then? We both laughed ourselves silly, and thankfully she didn’t hold it against me!
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“Yeah, a big mouse named Esther!” … the best line in the whole piece. Funny story that one, you big mouse, you.
I remember those days…we used to live in CA, then moved to rural MO. Fundraisers were never the same…too many farmers with guns!
Oh goodness, that is so cute. Now that is one tried and tested friendship.
Haha–fundraisers were handled the same way in our house. I ended up buying one or two thngs. Great story 🙂
Boy does that bring back memories! I used to love those fundraisers: candy bars, cards, candles, Girl Scout Cookies- I did it all.
We lived in suburbia, so it was kind of doable,except there were a lot of elderly people in my neighborhood, who of course didn’t have much use for sweets…
P.S.
Boy do you look like a kid with a lot of spunk!
i gave my brother a peice of cake once that the cat had licked on.. and he ate it, anyway! lol. i did NOT like those fundraisers…. never could earn enough for any of the “cool” prizes…
Ugh I have my own school fundraiser chocolate bar story. We lived in a rural area that had a few houses but they were far apart. I put my chocolate bars in a plastic bag and hung it from the bars on my bike and proceeded to pedal my way through my neighborhood. Really close to my house we had a big hill that went down and then up another hill. Us kids would Bike as fast as we could going up to the hill and then coast our way down.I went down the hill as fast as I could and it felt wonderful after all that biking to just feel the wind in my hair. The next thing I knew the bag got wrapped around the spokes of my bike and quickly twisted the bag, ripping a hole through it. The bars all went flying and I was going to fast to stop so I ended up running over most of them. It was horrible!
lol…You know, the one fundraiser I have the hardest time turning down when the kids come by is cookie dough. Seriously, they can get me to buy it every time!
Ahhh. Fundraisers! Years ago, my oldest son brought home a case of Chocolate-covered almonds. They sat on the floor in my bedroom. Finally, the day before we were to take them back, I decided to send him out. I picked up the case, but it was SO light. I realized that only the top four boxes were full. The little monkey had eaten all of the boxes underneath!
Fundraisers were always some kind of trouble in my family too! Like the one year we ate all of the chocolate rabbits we were supposed to sell! At $4 a piece my parents were not happy at all!
So funny! Hey, chocolate is chocolate! 😉
I love the old picture of you!
Finally got around to checking facebook….ha ha ha! I remember that!!! I totally believed you’d bitten that chocolate! After I realized it really was a mouse, I thought oh well..can’t believe it…oh well…good candy! I don’t remember posing for the picture though…check out my pose! ha ha!