The World May Never Know...

So, it's Sunday morning and the boyLovey and I are lying in bed eating Tootise Pops and watching TV. Exciting, I know, but this is what nearly two decades of romance gets you sometime. Not that there aren't still fireworks too. But it's Sunday, mind you, and the middle of summer, and the whole fam is home, which translates to a potential fire hose nozzle aimed right at any super show of pyrotechnic passion. We were already pushing it by eating the last two pops from the Halloween stash..... without.... *gasp*......sharing!!!!! See there is an element of danger... Oh the thrill... but I digress.
Anyway, I'm enjoying my pop with a fervor matched only by a diabetic in crisis (oh wait that would be me, or at least me rebelling against my hated diabetes prevention diet). I'm sucking and licking away and wondering just how many licks it does take to get the Tootsie roll center, when I hazard a sideways glance at the boyLovey who is studying his flattened Tootsie pop wrapper as if it is a map leading to the Holy grail.
Me: What are you looking at? (actually, I still have the pop in my mouth, so it was more like,"thwlat far you fulooking atth? Again, 20 years of compatibility. Manners sometimes fly out the window.)

bL: I'm looking to see if I have a star on my wrapper. (as does the need to be translated too ;)

Me: Fthwly...err... Why?
bL: Because if you find a star, you win a free pop.
Me: Whutt??? You told you that?

bL: (all cool and mater of factly) SuperFlyCuz told me that when we were kids.

(Ugggggggggggggggggghhh. SuperFlyCuz. Oh yes. We grew up with him. He was in our grade at school. He had perfect hair (which I'm pretty sure was fiberglass) and very white teeth and all the girls got very swoony around him. Me, I hated him. Mostly on principle, but still... His dad was a math teacher and he was perfect at math too. Me, not so much. Long story short, my first day in Algebra, I was assigned to sit in front of him. When Mr. Olivematholata called on us by rows, I of course got it way freaking wrong, and SuperFlyCuz directly behind me, got deferred to and made a grand show of just exact-a-freaking-ly where I'd gone awry. I don't really think he meant to be a dick, but he was just kinda like that. And then, of course, I married his cousin and now he's my SuperFlyCuz too. He lives in another state though, and we don't really talk except at the rare Blue fam gathering, so it's pretty much all good now. Except when the chickies from hell school...er... high school run into to me at the store, or the Y, or what have you. They always think I'm talking about SuperFlyCuz when I mention my boyLovey's name... yeeeeeeeahhh....)
Me: Omigosh, why haven't I ever heard this? Then again, we weren't allowed to eat a lot of candy in  my house growing up, I only ever saw that ad with the owl...(I start frantically searching for my wadded up wrapper in the Kleenex box.)
bL:Oh, yeah, wise old Mr. Owl! I remember him. (gets a dreamy look on his face as '70 nostalgia overtakes him)
Here's a link to that ad just in case you are too young to remember, or too old to have been watching cartoons in the '70's and '80's.... http://youtu.be/Q8PAJKlulKQ  ...or need a little '70's nostalgia therapy...

*RaleyBlueNote: '70's nostalgia therapy is what saved our sanity after 9-11. We were 26, had just had our 3rd autistic/sensory processing challenged child in 4 years, about six weeks prior, and were really ill-equipped in dealing with life in general. We cried a lot anyway. And then the sky really did start falling. Or so it seemed there for a while. But peace and serenity finally came to us as were meditating one day... read: wandering aimlessly through WalMart to drown out the frantic voices in our heads/ lull the kids to sleep in the cart...and came face to face with a beautiful modern construct of the old plastic, grassy looking, boot scraping, doormat with the little white daisy in the upper left hand corner....
And we were comforted. Saved really. Neither of us could speak as to just why this marvel had made us whole again, but it had! Perhaps it harkened back to the days or our early childhoods, a gentler time and place...And so, we took it home with us and have been avid collectors of '70's Americana ever since. And it is in these things, that we find our happy place. And we are able to go forward when life throws us an 8track instead of an ipod.... or vice versa...or something... yeah... anyway....
MEANWHILE....

Me: OMIGOD, mine has one!!!! (holds up wrapper pointing to a little boy dressed as a Native American shooting an arrow at a star.)
OMIGOD, OMIGOD!!!!!!!!!! What do I do???????? Where do I take it? I won! I won!
bL:(looking totally annoyed that I have so easily accomplished this most coveted find) Let me see that! (snatches my most valuable prize away)
Me: Dude! Be careful!
bL:Yep, that's it alright.
Me: What do I do with it?
bL:I don't know, I guess take it to the store or something. I had one when I was a kid, but Mom never let me turn it in. She seemed kinda annoyed when I asked her.
(Screeching record scratching sound...)
Me: Wait. How do you know this is real? How do you know SuperFlyCuz didn't just tell that to shine you on?
bL: I don't know, he had one and he showed it to me. He said AuntieUncleBlue was gonna take him to the store later so he could get a free pop.
Me: Uh huh. And that doesn't sound suspicous to you?
bL: I dunno. It's what he said.(looking petulant)
Me:Yeah and how do know he wasn't just being all, "looky what I got and you don't got and I'm gonna get a free pop. Like later and crap...when you aren't here..."
bL: (sighs) God, Raley, I know you're still emotionally back in math class, but really. Dude. Let it go. (adopts his best stilted R.Patz as Edward in the film, Twilight, accent) You can Google it. (We both burst out laughing.)

I did Google it.
It turns out this is an urban legend from many past days of yore. Nobody knows who came up with it but stories have been surfacing since the 1920's. Also, some stores have actually been known to honor the free pop thing, though no one seems to know why or what was in it for them. There was never any sanctioned contest or promotional to this effect by the Tootsie Roll peeps.
In fact, they got so many wrappers in the mail, in 1982, they started sending out a little form letter about it.
Here's a link so you can read it without your microscopic Dr. McDreamy lens glasses: http://www.tootsie.com/pdf/wrapper_legend.pdf

It's basically a B.S.-y little story to self promote and avoid giving free pops in my opion. Just sayin'.

So I guess, the world really may never know. But really, Young Lovers, isn't it good to know about these things? I think so. If nothing else for a few kicks and giggles.

Also in my travels, I came across this little link: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-candy-myths.php , which not only dispels the Tootsie Pop star myth, but also unravels Van Halen's "no brown m&m's or we'll trash the place" backstage rider among other things. So if you need a little Sunday afternoon reading...check it.

So I guess a mystery is solved. Always glad to help. And as always,

From Me2U, Love, Raley Blue <3