A Single Red Gumball

Sometimes in life an event happens that makes you relive your past.  I don’t mean in a bad way, but a small act makes you examine the little things in life that will always affect you and make you realize the extend to which people care about you.

Today was a very eventful day.  Not only was it the first day of Winter Break ushering in a sense of calm, but I was presented with multiple topics for this post.  But this post starts when we arrive at our Professor’s house for dinner and discussion.

When I walk in the door I see familiar packaging sitting on the table.  My mom had sent another package.  I was at first happy to have another box to open and had no idea what could possibly be inside.  I look at the customs declaration list and see “Vitamins, mosquito net, bug repellant.” My excitement fell away as I have enough mosquito repellant to last until the apocalypse and I feel bad having my mom spend the almost $50 in shipping to send me packages.

I open the package and see the mosquito net, the bug repellant, then a small box with a bow crowning the top.  I have no idea what could be inside.  When I open the box I find a single red gumball sitting inside.  It took me hours to figure out why she would possibly spend the ~$5 in shipping to send me a single gumball before I could figure it out.

Growing up, there was a diner in Redondo Beach near my house where I would often go with my mom called Ruby’s Diner.  It overlooked the marina and we would enjoy watching the sailboats slowly make headway against the wind.  In the diner they had a gumball machine that, for $.25 would dispense a gumball.  It had ten different color gumballs, but if you were lucky enough to get a red gumball, you would get a certificate for a free root beer float.  Not much of a root beer guy myself, I would still spend whatever change my mom would give me to try to win just for the sheer pleasure of winning.

I never thought much about it, I was just being a kid.  But these moments must have meant the world because she drove to Ruby’s and who knows how long she sat at that gumball machine waiting and hoping for a red gumball to send me.