Frank, Kit, and the Gumdrop Cake
by Frank Macdonald
Reading John’s story about getting Greet to peel the grapes reminded me of a Christmas in my early 20s when I was home in Trenton [Nova Scotia] for a visit. I was watching television with my father, Freddie, and reached over to the coffee table and took some gumdrops out of a bowls and began eating them.
Dad looked at me funny then asked, “Can you eat gumdrops?” and when I said yes, went on to tell me the following story.
He had come home from work one afternoon in Inverness and walked into the kitchen in our house on Campbell Street. I was sitting in a high chair and my mother, Kit, was sitting in a chair in front of me with a scowl on her face shoving gumdrops into my mouth one after another.
When dad asked what was going on she told him that she had been trying to bake a gumdrop cake and had given me a gumdrop to chew on to keep me quiet. Big mistake because my first tooth was a sweet tooth. I began crying for more, and got another one, and then cried some more and got another one until she finally became so fed up with me that she sat with the bowl of gumdrops feeding them to me, telling my father, “When he finishes this bowl he’ll never want another one!”
My father had assumed until that night that my mother was right and gumdrops would be off my life’s menu. How wrong she was! I’m not too fond of gumdrop cake, though, which is probably is rooted in childhood guilt acquired while seated in a high chair.
Freddie: Freddie Macdonald, Frank’s dad
Kit: Catherine Gillies, Freddie’s wife and Frank’s mother
Characters • Gillies, Catherine • Macdonald, Frank • Macdonald, Freddie • Stories • Storytellers • told by Frank Macdonald | Dave Ferguson March 2, 2006
