# Fruit Stripe Gum = "Toys R Us" gum?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 11, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480 "2012-03-11T20:07:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/21 "2012-03-12T04:07:37Z")

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No, I used to chew it a lot when I was a kid and never was in a Toys R Us until at least 20 years later after my daughter was born. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a commercial for it at all. I just bought it in the drugstore.

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**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/22 "2012-03-12T12:04:09Z")

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I never associated the gum with the toy store, but then I don’t recall the toy store when I was a kid back in the olden days. My mom was very \*very \*anti-gum, especially sugary sweet gums (double mint was OK on occasion) so I never had Fruit Stripe as a kid. I did buy it once as a young adult and was dismayed to find that not only did it lose its flavor fast, but if chewed hard enough, it completely disintegrated! Granted, the particular incident was a very stressful one and I was apparently channeling my anxiety to my gum… but all at once, it got weirdly gritty, and then it was gone. ick.

If I chew now, it’s a mint gum.

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**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/23 "2012-03-12T21:23:46Z")

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> [@jayjay](#):
>
> Weren’t they colored bright yellow and supposed to be gold nuggets? Then, of course, the 80s brought “Big League Chew”, which was gum in the form of one of the more disgusting yet socially acceptable in professional sports circles (at the time) habits, chewing tobacco. Kind of. What it actually was was just chunk gum (like Hubba Bubba or Bubble Yum) extruded into long, skinny shapes and stuffed into a foil pouch.

And Big League Chew was brought to market by Jim Bouton, the former Yankees pitcher who authored “Ball Four.”

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**Author:** ![fjs1fs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9e8a1a/32.png) [@fjs1fs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fjs1fs)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/24 "2012-03-13T17:38:06Z")

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When I was a kid growing up in the 70s the commercial featured kids saying:

“You can’t tickle my tongue, Zebra!”

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