Rocket Pop Popsicle Big Stick Smiles
Sunday afternoon in the midst of a Bakersfield heat wave that announced summer was on its way, I sat on my friend’s porch eating a Rocket Pop Popsicle and it was the best treat I’d had in quite a while.

“These remind me of my grandma.” I said to my friend while we ate our Popsicles.

“Your grandma?” My friend asked.

“Yeah she loved Popsicles, especially Big Stick Popsicles.” I explained.

We were sitting on the porch people-watching the neighborhood. Two teenagers practiced their skateboard moves on the sidewalk in front of us.

“These Popsicles remind me of when I was younger and my grandparents lived on the farm.” I continued.

“On the farm?” My friend asked.

“Yeah, the farm in Lamont. Grandma always had to have her Big Stick Popsicles and when she ran out we would go to the store on Weedpatch Hwy in grandpa’s orange work truck and get more.” I explained.

I remember when I was younger and would spend summer weeks on the farm with grandma and grandpa. Grandpa was the foreman for a big agricultural company and they lived in a house on the farm he worked. My cousins and I had such adventures on the farm with grandma and grandpa. Days and nights spent playing games of hide and seek and tag in cotton fields and haystacks. Riding the watering route with grandpa in the orange work truck. I think we all learned to drive, before we were old enough to drive, on dirt roads in that orange work truck. Grandpa may have regretted teaching us to drive, because his orange work truck became a game of ‘hide grandpa’s work truck’. The boys especially would drive his work truck and park it a few fields away and grandpa would have to find it early in the morning when he went to work. The reservoir we weren’t supposed to play in, but sometimes did. The only time we ever got in trouble for our antics was when we tried to drive the tractors and one 4th of July when we took a bag of cement out of the barn and built a volcano that actually erupted (with the help of fireworks). The girls and I would spend time with grandma trying to learn the things she did, like crochet, quilt and embroider. I never mastered any of those crafts, but I have tea towels that grandma embroidered and an afghan she crocheted. I used to have a quilt she made but its been gone for years. My grandparents have both passed away in the last two years but I remember grandpa was famous for his home made vanilla milkshakes and wit and grandma was famous for her chocolate sheet cake and Big Stick smiles among many many other things…  posted by Matildakay at 11:12 PM