Of Bubbles and Plastic Balloons

When I was a kid, I loved balloons.

I loved making balloons from bubble gums. Bazooka made the best bubble gums.

I remember I was four when I started to learn how to blow bubbles from balloons. This is not without accidents like having gum in my long hair and having too much fun with the balloon blowing that the balloon gets big enough and explodes in my face.

Then, my mom and/or my friends and I used to make bubbles from gumamela flowers. Looking back, that was a really cool Science thing to do. Who would’ve thought flowers, mixed with a few other ingredients, were capable of producing bubbles?

And of course, when we couldn’t find Gumamela flowers, we’d often resort to the good old Plastic Balloon! PHP 1.00 only! Masakit sa panga pero sobrang saya (Cheek-hurting fun). I wonder where we can still get it?

If I remember clearly, you put a little of the gum (plastic balloon inside the small tin container that’s shaped like a tube for toothpaste) on the little stick that comes with it. Then you roll the stick around your mouth to get it a little wet. I remember that it didn’t taste good but it wasn’t so bad. After getting the gum wet, you blow on the other side of the stick until the balloon blows up to the desired shape and size. A trick I learned is if your balloon pops too quickly while you’re blowing on the stick is the gum is either not wet enough or there’s not enough gum on the stick.

Someone please tell me where to get the plastic balloon as illustrated above. I wanna get in touch with my inner kid again! :-)