With all this talk about candy, I started waxing nostalgic for gum wrapper chains. That’s when I stumbled on Gary Duschl’s Guinness World Record Gum Wrapper Chain. You’ve got to check it out.
As of April 11, 2007, the chain has 1,201,601 gum wrappers and is 51,276 feet long. Whoa! That makes the 30 foot chain around my twin bed in 1965 seem like a shoe string.
And get this, he began the chain on March 11, 1965 and it’s 170 football fields long which means it would take about 4 hours to walk the whole length of it. Mindboggling.
You can send your gum wrappers to Gary in Virginia Beach, Virginia and he will wrap them into the chain. He also gives step by step instructions on How To Make Your Own Gum Wrapper Chain.
There’s another good site for learning how to make a gum wrapper chain at The Victory Old-Time Candy Store. Not only do they include detailed instructions for building a chain, they also sell (and include a brief history of ) Beeman’s, Blackjack, Adam’s Sour, Teaberry, Tendermint, and Clark’s Cinnamon.
Everybody, Chew On!
Friday, April 27th, 2007
-from Topic post, Candy Freak
[…] Bubble Gum 9. Beemans gum 10. Black Jack gum 11. Teaberry Gum (my fave, gum wrapper chains, hours of time well […]
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I have created a paper chain craft kit that makes an approximately 4 ft. long chain. Gum wrappers are so hard to come by these days and my daughter wanted to learn the craft. We bought sooo many packs of gum just for the wrappers but to no avail. So I had to make up my own. You can check out my web site at paperchaincraftkits.com if you are looking for an alternative to the gum wrappers.
Thanks, kay8
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kay8: it’s kind of cool that you are making this old ritual available to younger generations. I hadn’t thought about it but you are right – gum wrappers ARE getting harder and harder to find. I checked out your colorful site and what a great alternative to chewing all that gum just for the wrappers! Thanks for sharing.
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