Theresa Lewis

There is an ad on television for O’Henry chocolate bars. It shows three men in a garage working on cars. One man takes a break and opens the wrapper on an O’Henry bar. The ad shows the bar exploding with peanuts, caramel and chocolate. Every time I see that ad, it reminds me of when I was a child.

 

My dad worked for the National Licorice Company so we had every product they manufactured. Once every few months, dad would bring home a big box of every kind of goodie. We rarely ever got to eat other kinds of candies, such as chocolate bars.

 

I guess our mother preferred chocolate to licorice. She used to buy herself chocolate bars and hide them high up on a top shelf in the kitchen dish cupboard where none of us children could reach.

 

I was about twelve years old at the time. Mom decided to wash out the dish cupboard one day and I asked if I could help her. She stood on a chair and passed me dishes that I would place on the table.

 

In her cleaning efforts, she discovered a “Sweet Marie” chocolate bar that she had forgotten was up there. I saw her stuff it into her apron pocket. I know she had plans to devour it later when no one was around.

 

Sweet Marie chocolate bars were very similar to the O’Henry… nuts, nougat, and caramel and covered in chocolate.

 

Once the job was done and I had left the kitchen, I heard my mother scream. I ran back to see what had happened. I found my mother stomping her feet and hacking into the kitchen sink between screams of horror.

 

When I asked her what happened, she told me that the chocolate bar had been full of maggots and she had taken a bite before she noticed them. After that, mom never ate another chocolate bar that had nuts in it.

 

Remembering the histrionics of that day still makes me laugh.

 

 

THE END