Memories of Bottlecaps

Sometimes the most simplest of all things and their associated memories can bring a smile to my face and a certain 'giddiness' to myself.

Today, in a higher than normal hectic day, one of co-workers had out a bowl of left over Halloween candy. Inside, I spied a package of Wonka Bottlecaps. The packaging has changed quite a bit over the last 25 years from the very first ones I can remember opening, but the taste is unforgettable.

As is the memories that filled my mind of being a child and not be cogniscent of the cruel and wicked and often dissapointing world that surrounds me.

It was a little surreal. I popped the first cap in my mouth...Rootbeer.....and before I knew it, it was a summer afternoon in Michigan and I was with my parents and my favorite uncle sitting outside an old A&W drive-in stand. My uncle used to take me here for a rootbeer float when he was alive and I was young. We were on vacation, and we had been vsiting relatives that still live in the smae hometown my parents were from.

I has a special bond with my uncle. He was like a grandfather to me. He always made time for me, and I have so many special memories of him. I was devestated when he passed almost two years ago. Probably more so than I would be when my own grandfather passes.

Anyway, I remember him introducing me to Bottlecaps, and to this day, it is one of my favorite novelty candies.

Orange....like a 50/50 bar, and here I sit again in the backyard of yet another relatives yard. There's a picnic bench outside that I sit on and watch my older family tell stories of their youth in which I cannot relate, but it's okay. I have my Bottlecaps and I listen to their laughter and I watch the clouds drift by and feel the warmth of the sun on my arms and legs.

Grape. My cousins and I will be lighting fireworks soon. We swam all day out at the cottage and ate hotdogs and canned beans, and fished for Sunfish.

Cola...another flavor just as delicate. Why are all my memories now of when I was eight or nine years old? The images and feelings are intense and are surprising that they have surfaced. But with every cap I throw in my mouth, the taste takes me back. Back before I knew what mortage was, taxes, before a career, before alcohol and girlfriends and death and war. Before I knew about depression and God and corrupt world ideologies and pain and hurt. Before I allowed anger and despair to take foot in my mind and heart.

5 Bottlecaps. That's all there was in this pack. 5. It took me all of a few minutes to eat them all, but the memories that brought back with them is something I treasure and long for again.