Chewing Gum

I used to chew gum all the time, in fact, when I was in grade school I used to regularly get in trouble for chewing gum.  The years when I had braces were some of the worst in my youth because of my inability to chew gum (well that and the fact that I had fuckin’ braces on my teeth).  I have no reasonable estimate as to how much money I spent on gum in my college years, but I would guess it to easily be a couple hundred dollars over the period of four years.  Then I moved to South Carolina, and more or less stopped chewing gum for about a year and a half.

I am not sure why this happened, though my theory is that it had something to do with work.  There is nothing all that polite (or appropriate) about chewing gum when you work in public service.  My guess is that because I wasn’t chewing  gum when I worked in the public computer area for 8+ hours a day I decided to pretty much stop buying gum, which in turn caused me to forget about my love of chewing gum, which was all around tragic.

When I was home this past year for Christmas I got several packs of gum in my stocking.  At first I didn’t really pick gum chewing right back up. I kind of skirted around the edge of the definiton of a newly devout gum chewer; a piece here or there, but no regularity to it.  Then it dawned on me.  I was now working in an office for 8+ hours a day, much of which time I don’t have any major interactions with other people.  Why the hell couldn’t I chew gum during the day?  The truth is that I could, as long as I was polite enough to get rid of it before going to meetings or working closely with other people.  Gum chewing was back!

Now, several months later, I am fully back to my old habit and I love it.  Just appreciating my first piece of gum for the day led me to this posting.  At this point in my life I am primarily a spearmint gum person (though other mints will suffice in the absence of spearmint).  Not really all that into bubble gum or fruit flavored gum anymore, those were the choices of my youth.  I have no definitive brand preference, though for the last couple of months I have been pretty loyal to Stride.

Considering all the gum I chew (and how long I can chew a single piece of gum – a very long time) I wonder if my jaws possess some serious muscular strength.  I mean, isn’t gum chewing kind of like jaw excercising?

~ by Nathaniel on April 14, 2009.