Indians Invented Chewing Gum!

So I grew up on a farm in far Southern Oregon, Ruch, Oregon to be exact. It's about 30 miles from the California border, closest major city is Medford, Oregon. We raised chickens and pigs. I'll talk about them some more, on some other post. Today we are going to discuss chopping wood for the winter.

So our farm was small, it wasn't how my parent's made a living, it was just a side job for us, to make a little extra money, selling the chickens and pigs to friends and neighbors once the meat was processed. I believe we had about 7 acres of land, at least 4 of those acres being the side of a mountain. We moved out there when I was in 3rd grade, so I was 8 years old.

The first fall we were there, my dad decided that we had no need to buy a cord of wood anymore, we had plenty of trees on our property to cut down! I was 8 mind you, so my help was minimal in this task. My sisters were 15 and 13, so they got stuck with the hard stuff. My oldest sister had a guy friend named Terry, that my dad just loved. You know, he was the guy that your parents WANTED you to be with, but it just wasn't like that for my sister, he was just a good friend. Well, Terry was there too, helping my dad with the wood chopping at hand.

Terry and my dad walked up the side of a mountain a ways, to find a good tree to chop down. Apparently while they were up there, they plotted a little scheme to trick my sister. So Pacific Madrone was a tree my dad liked to use for burning, I guess it burned well, I don't really know. But the interesting thing about these trees is that when freshly cut, the bark will peel off of the tree really easy, almost like you are peeling an orange.

So Dad and Terry are on the mountain side, cutting down a madrone, and chopping it into smaller pieces and rolling these down the hill, to us, three girls at the bottom. I know, REAL safe eh? No one has ever accused my father of being a rocket scientist! So we're dodging and weaving these chunks of wood as they are flying down the hill, and bark is going everywhere, as it peels so darned easy.

Dad and Terry come down after they are done, to help us out, down at the bottom of the hill. This is when my dad goes into his story:

"So, (to oldest sister) you know there used to be Indians all over Oregon back in the day right? Well, they really loved madrone wood, because of all the purposes it served them. They used every part of the tree when they cut it down, even the bark!"

*so me and the middle sister are watching my dad, and can tell he's making this up, we give eachother a knowing look and proceed to join along in the fun*

So the oldest sister is buying this hook line and sinker, and of course asks what all they used the bark for.

"Well, Terry, correct me if I'm wrong, but they used it to make shields, canoe's and even chewing gum, did you know the Indians actually invented chewing gum?"

*I am 8 years old and realize what my dad is doing, he's going to get oldest sister to actually put the fucking bark in her mouth and chew on it!*

Oldest sister looks at middle sister and myself and we give her the "yeah, it's true" look. She bites, literally, she takes a piece of bark and puts it in her mouth.

We all explode into laughter, as we can't hold it back anymore, it's just too funny! Of course she spits it out immediately and is all embarrassed and stuff. The poor oldest sister always got the brunt of the jokes, as she wasn't as quick witted as me and the middle sister back then. We were in Oregon after all, think she bought way too many bags of weed from the hippies!

One of my fondest memories of my childhood, I still laugh about it to this day! There are more of course, I don't just have ONE memory, I'll write about them some more in the future. It's been fun to write this, so expect more!

p.s. the cocaine post yesterday was NOT intended to be funny, or promote it's use, it really was meant to make you realize how STUPID it is, so if I have any readers who are still using this stupid shit, STOP!