Did Your Momma Ever Make Popsicles From Juice When You Were A Kid?

Mine did; she would make OJ or apple juice from frozen concentrate, then pour it into ice cube trays and re-freeze. Even though the treat was ghetto, we kids looooved it, largely because Mums had these super-fun sticks to put in the "Popsicle." The sticks were plastic, multicolored animals in silly poses. My brother, Bear, always chewed the end of his stick when he was done, then would complain because he had the shortest Popsicle.

At some indistinguishable point, those sticks vanished from our routine. And like so many aspects of childhood, I had forgotten all about them and our mad dash to the freezer every day after school.

Today, however, while poking around a tiny Antiques Mall in Forest Grove, I found the sticks. There is the basset hound with its droopy cheeks as blue as Elvis' suede shoes; the roaring lion safely in his minty green cage; the corn-yellow farmer putting along in his model-T; the foppish lion tamer in all his creamy goodness; and the swash-buckling pirate, fearsome in pink. One hundred and twenty-five pennies later I could take this Piece of my Past home.

I'm going to make juice-sicles tonight:)