Bubble Gum Dreams

There may be a few of you who are old enough to remember the inserts in bubble gum packs -- small pieces of waxed paper a bit smaller than a business card. One set had pictures of exotic places and things with brief explainations about the pictures.

When I was a lad in the 50's, I had three of these that stuck to my mind, and still do to this day. One was the Great Wall (China), another stone money (Yap, FSM), both of which I have seen, climbed and touched.

The last, the Plain of Jars insert, had a picture of a man (presumably a "native") wearing only a skirt standing next to one of the stone jars. The image stuck, and one of the things I've always wanted to do was to see those jars.

The Plain was a location that until recently was very difficult to get to. By the time I was old enough to think about going there, there was a war on. Later other things just got in the way. Today that dream of seeing and touching one of the fabled jars came true.