# Did your aunt/grandmother ever send you a stick of gum in the mail? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2020, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480 "2020-04-10T03:46:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/1 "2020-04-10T03:46:26Z")
My aunt just sent my kids each a stick of gum in their Easter card today. This brought back memories of my childhood when my aunts and grandmothers would send me a card with a stick of gum in it. When I said to my wife, “Ah, what is it with aunts and sticks of gum in cards?” she had no freaking idea what I was talking about. She said perhaps it was a Michigan thing, or a Midwestern thing, or a Dutch thing (she didn’t grow up as any of those things). So _I_ said perhaps her aunts and grandmothers just didn’t love her very much as a child. And then she rolled her eyes at me. Regardless, this is a thing right? Aunts and/or grandmas slipping a stick of gum into a card for kids? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/2 "2020-04-10T04:00:44Z")
One aunt of ours would send coupons for things like canned peaches. I guess she didn’t think we were worthy of gum. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/3 "2020-04-10T04:34:00Z")
Why no. No she didn’t. How funny. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/4 "2020-04-10T04:47:42Z")
Never heard of it before. Are you sure it isn’t just a “your family” thing? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/5 "2020-04-10T04:58:20Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > Never heard of it before. Are you sure it isn’t just a “your family” thing? It happened on both sides of my family, the aunts and grandmothers never coordinated. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/6 "2020-04-10T09:12:57Z")
No, and I never heard of such a thing. How… odd. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/7 "2020-04-10T09:17:31Z")
Never heard of it, and half my aunts are from Michigan. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/8 "2020-04-10T10:49:30Z")
My grandparents just sent cards on Christmas and birthdays. And they usually had a $10 bill inside (this was back in the 1960s), not gum. One set of grandparents wouldn’t have sent Easter cards in any event; they were Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![Hi\_Medlo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hi\_Medlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hi_Medlo)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/9 "2020-04-10T13:01:40Z")
Not gum, but my grandmother would sometimes send me a Hershey bar in the mail when I was in college. Usually with insufficient postage, so I had to walk up to the post office to pay for it, but the thought was much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/10 "2020-04-10T13:12:16Z")
My grandfather worked for the Wrigley company for years, so we’d get like a big pack of Wrigley gums in the mail sometimes. I remember spearmint, double mint, and Juicy Fruit in like a “gift bag” type of assortment with probably ten full packs of gum per flavor. Actually, looking it up now, it looks like [these boxes](http://www.littlechelos.com/store.php/LITTLECHELO/pd8721678/wrigleys_doublemint_chewing_gum_twin_box_pack_40_packages_5_sticks_per_pack), which were actually 40 packs per box. It’s possible at the time that it was only a single tray, but still 20 packs. So, yeah, he’d send us (at least) 60 packs of gum. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/11 "2020-04-10T13:23:25Z")
**Happy** , If you had ever heard of anyone else doing this I think you would have mentioned it in your OP. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/12 "2020-04-10T13:48:26Z")
My five aunts, mother and their mother were all born and raised in Michigan and this is totally unfamiliar. However, my grandma on that side would send us a box of cereal for our birthdays. Mom didn’t normally allow sweet cereal so a box of colorful sugary grain and marshmallows was quite a treat. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/13 "2020-04-10T17:06:20Z")
Never heard of it, but the Google preview for [this Pinterest account](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/14003448811948124/) says “My sister and I each got a stick of gum in the mail from our grandmother in Nebraska every Thursday.” And [this person](https://twitter.com/mbskerjanec/status/1049096367761571840) on Twitter is offering to send a stick of gum in the mail to college kids. [This blog](http://www.viewfromthecloud.com/2006/05/she-loves-me-like-rock.html) also mentions the tradition. So while it isn’t widespread, apparently It Isn’t Just You. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/14 "2020-04-10T17:53:14Z")
No. That would have been with “Where’s my money, bitch??” I kid, but not really. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/15 "2020-04-17T03:00:33Z")
There are Easter cards? But no. No one ever mailed me gum. My great grammy would buy it for us if we went shopping with her, though. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/16 "2020-04-18T04:47:22Z")
No. That would have been weird. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/17 "2020-04-18T04:59:24Z")
No, but the cards from my Grandmother often contained a $5 bill. I’ve never heard of a stick of gum in a greeting card. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/18 "2020-04-18T05:12:18Z")
I feel like this was mentioned in passing in a letter to Carolyn Hax or Dear Prudence recently. In response to another letter about maintaining a relationship with the grandkids, someone mentioned all the little things their long-distance grandma did to stay in touch, and one of them was sending a card or letter with a stick of gum. I’d never heard of it before that. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-aunt-grandmother-ever-send-you-a-stick-of-gum-in-the-mail/851480/19 "2020-04-18T09:59:12Z")
My aunt-by-marriage, who hasn’t been my aunt since 1984 would send a stick of gum in my birthday or Easter card, I don’t remember which. It was Fruit Stripe gum. She’s from SW Ohio.