When I was little we would sit in the living room, as a family, every Sunday night and watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom followed by Walt Disney. Sometimes dad would stop at the little beer joint in town and bring home an assortment of some of the most disgusting, ready made sandwiches ever created. They couldn’t have been wrapped in air tight packaging as they always tasted like cigarette smoke. All mom needed to do was slide them onto a cookie sheet and pop them in the oven to warm them up and before we knew it, supper was ready. She would always pick up a six pack of those large returnable quart bottles of pop when she did her weekly grocery shopping and treat us to pop with our supper on the weekends. It was so exciting. She would get out the rainbow colored Tupperware tumblers and fill each one with some ice cubes and some bubbly, delicious, very much anticipated pop. It kind of made the sandwiches a bit more palatable and before we knew it, the sandwiches and pop were gone and our eyes were glued to the television set watching the best choice of shows between the 2 and 1/2 channels we had. When I say 2 and 1/2 channels I mean CBS, NBC and then half the time public broadcasting would come in but only if the wind wasn’t out of the west and it wasn’t cloudy.
When my pop had washed down the last bite of my sandwich I continued to hold the glass up to my mouth and found that if I sucked all the air out, it would stay on my face like magic! This was so cool. My brother and sister took turns grabbing onto it and pulling it off so each time I put it back on, I would suck even more air out of it. There was a kind of tingly feeling that I enjoyed so I kept doing it for quite some time. Eventually it was time to head upstairs for bed which meant fighting to see who got to use the bathroom first. I’m not sure what place I came in that night but I do remember getting off the toilet and tossing a glance at myself in the mirror above the sink and something immediately caught my attention which prompted my brain to take another look.
O-H M-Y G-O-S-H!!!!!! WHAT’S WRONG WITH MY FACE???? I had a reddish ring all the way around my mouth that reached down to the bottom of my chin!!! Immediately, I was terrified! My heart began to pound and my palms got clammy and I recruited my sister to examine the situation. It wasn’t long before she was ready to deliver her diagnosis. She could tell I was hanging on her every word as I was sure I had only days left to live. At this point, I’m doubting I’ll ever forget the words that came out of her mouth. It was like one of those scenes from a movie when everything begins to happen in s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n. She said, “You gave yourself a hickie with that stupid Tupperware glass!” The wave of relief that swept over my body was amazing! I knew, at the very second she delivered my fate, she was indeed, right as right can be!
This story may be an interesting angle for the Tupperware company to use in their advertising. For years they’ve promoted their extraordinary seals and the freshness locked inside their “burped bowls” but not once have they said anything about the tremendous seal their glasses have when sucked to a person’s face! Heck, I didn’t need a boyfriend to give me hickies when I became a teenager. We had a set of rainbow tumblers!