History
From the Stars and Stripes archives:Bubble fun
Stars and Stripes
January 11, 1989
Lisa Hayes, 12, won the competition with this mega-bubble. (Ken George/Stars and Stripes)
ITS NAME ASIDE, coaxing the bubble from the gum is not always an easy matter.
As children at the McNair housing area youth activity center in Frankfurt, West Germany, found out last week, getting something more than a chuckle from your chicle can be downright troublesome at times.
Eighteen Frankfurt-area kids, aged 4 to 13, turned out to vie for most bizarre and biggest bubble honors in their age group in an after-school chewdown at the center Jan. 5.
Nine-year-old Darshana McClain concentrates on a bubble. (Ken George/Stars and Stripes)
Seven-year-old Jimmie Buie blows a winning bubble while six-year-old Brandon Bell, seemingly preparing for the worst, watches. (Ken George/Stars and Stripes)
Not all the bubbles were nice, round and singular. (Ken George/Stars and Stripes)
Angela Duke smiles after a bubble made an emergency landing on her nose. (Ken George/Stars and Stripes)
After a brief warmup designed to loosen jaws and rid the gum of its sugar, the contestants sank their teeth into the problem of transforming globs of gum — in some cases as many as three pieces — into effervescent expression.
Among the best in bubbledom as determined by the McNair battle of the gums were Carl Meyers, age 6; Jimmie Buie, 7; Angela Duke, 9; and 12-year-old Lisa Hayes.
Top finishers were awarded prizes for their efforts from recreation assistant Doris Williams.
And least this time, no one was chewed out for popping his gum.