(The Blog Formerly Known as "Countdown to 30" and "30 is the New Twenty")

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Jelly Beans!


Yesterday I was at Target waiting in line at the checkout when I was sucked into an endcap display: Easter Candy, more specifically jelly beans. I love jelly beans. Even the black ones. I had to buy a bag. I know that they are so sugar filled and not good for me, but I couldn't resist. I was drawn to the bag of Brach's Classic Jelly Beans. I blame it on nostalgia. When I was little, my mom always bought jelly beans for Easter. Being the thrifty mom that she was, she would buy them in these huge Brach's 2 lb. bags. For some odd reason, she kept them in the front closet. The bag never lasted very long . Maybe a week. It was our thing, too. Just my mom and I. My Dad isn't a big fan of candy. My mom was a pretty cool mom and sort of a kid herself. She let me have as many jelly beans as I wanted. I never gorged myself on them. I would eat small hand fulls throughout the day. My mom loved the black jelly beans. She would dig through the bag to find them. If my Grandpa was around, the two would fight over the black ones. I liked to eat them in certain color combinations: orange, pink, purple and yellow and green. Every year we always had this huge bag of jelly beans. (Ok, two or three) It was a rite of Spring.
As I was looking back on Easter's past, I realized that I have really come a long way since my mom passed away almost 10 years ago. I can recall these traditions with as sense of fondness and happiness . As recent as two years ago, I probably would've broken down in the middle of Target and not known why. It's great to finally be at the point in my life where I can looked back at these memories without all the sadness and pain.
In the true tradition of Easter's past, the bag if jelly beans I bought is almost gone. My mom would've wanted it that way.

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