Lost My Identity- Kai's Ma'ma: PEZ- You can't help but collect them!

Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007
I purchased this Chicken Little PEZ at the Chicago airport as I was amazed of its detail and it it reminded me of my childhood years of my popping PEZ candy into my mouth that never seemed to last long enough.

Or maybe it reminded me of my nerdy days when I wore thick, large glasses, bell bottom pants, and was a competitor on the Mathlete club. I even earned the letter "M" to put on my highschool jacket (...but I wasn't that stupid- I could get beat up for advertising that, you know)

Later on, I saw more PEZ in a candy store in Sacramento and was attracted to the toy truck with wheels that rolled- you would never have guessed it was another PEZ item had you not read it closely. I bought one for Kai, who spent the day rolling his new toy across everything, and not knowing that it could be loaded with candy, which disappeared to my gut by the way.

In 1957, the first PEZ came out. A German product, PEZ is actually short for Pfefferminz or peppermint! They just took a few letters from that long German word and made their first peppermint PEZ candy.

Well...I was reading a magazine and ran across this recommendation to see the PEZ Museum in Burlingame, CA. An hour drive got me there in no time for Kai and I to have a personal tour of the PEZ and Toy Museum by the owner himself.

eBAY was actually inspired by the owners girlfriend who collected PEZ items and auctioned them.

Molds of future PEZ dispensers.

PEZ came up with this idea, to stick body parts to the dispenser- unfortunately it was discontinued as it became a choking hazard.

PEZ candy dispensing machine.

Kai and Arleen stand next to the world's LARGEST PEZ dispenser!

Did you know this is the ONLY PEZ museum in the world? Germany doesn't even have one- what were they thinking, huh Rolf and Ute?

The curator Gary Doss dispenses us a retired PEZ (Snowman B 1986-2001) and hands it to Kai. We were lucky as it was the last one available in his museum(certificate #107). The giant PEZ was designed by Gary himself, who has been collecting PEZ since he was a kid. The snowman stands at 7 feet 10 inches and weighs 85 pounds. The world'd largest candy dispenser made the Guinness World Record!

To see how the dispenser works there is a video on the museum website for viewing.

http://www.worldslargestpezdispenser.com/

The baby snowman PEZ.

Just another fun addition to Kai's Memory Box to go along with incrimating photographs for his wedding reception slideshow.

There were other vintage toys seen, such as the Colorforms! I once loved this toy. Geez, it's coming back to me!!!

The viewmaster! The large one is a table top viewer with a big screen (I had never seen that before).

Mr. Potato Head! I didn't realize there was also Mr. Cucumber Head (or is it a pickle?) and Mr. Orange Head

The original Mr. Potato Head called for an actual potato.

I left the museum with good memories of my childhood and a bag full of PEZ purchases (i'm thinking Xmas), but I suddenly felt a bit older too. Years have flown by!

Tinker Toys!

Lincoln Logs!

Later that afternoon, we crossed the San Mateo Bridge to Concord where I saw my eye doctor for a reassessment. My eyesight had improved. I had 20/25 vision on my right eye and 20/30 on my left! I had gone from wearing contact lenses and thick 1-inch glasses and being as blind as a bat, pre-surgery, to wearing corrective 1.23+ diopter glasses to see clearly the computer immediately after surgery, to presently not relying on any glasses at all!

The only time I see blurry is when Kai wakes me in the middle of the night...

And off, we went to pick Gramma and Grampa up from the airport.

Kai insists on pulling Gramma's luggage, and as heavy as it was, and with a bit of my assistance- he was persistent and lugged it all the way to the car.