The M&M Story!

"Daddy, will you tell me the M&M story?"  I overheard Andy asking Chris last night.  This piqued my interested, and I wondered what sort of fantastical, chocolaty tale Chris had woven for his young sons.

"Once upon a time, when Daddy was a little boy," Chris began, "The only M&M colors were red, green, yellow, brown, and other brown.  Can you imagine a world without blue M&M's?  Well, son, I lived it! Then, one day, the M&M people had a contest and all the little boys and girls and some of the weirder adults cast their votes.  Blue, pink, and purple were on the ballot- and blue was the winner!  So, they stopped making other brown  and started making blue.  The end!"

"Wow," breathed Andy.  Then, "Can you tell me that story again?"

And so Chris told the story again, and this time I listened closer.  That's right- there was once a world in which a bag of M&M's looked drastically, yet minorly different.  I suppose the M&M litmus test would be a good way to check to see if you've accidentally time traveled to some era pre-1995 and post whenever it was that M&Ms started being made at all.  "Quick!" you might shout out to a convenience store clerk as a younger Bill Clinton babbles on a tube screen TV behind you.  "Open that bag of M&M's!  Are there any blue ones?  Are there any other brown ones??"  And, then, since the M&M bag can only clear up so much, you may have to just ask for a newspaper.  Because, truly, that's the only real way to find out if you've time traveled.  What kind of idiot divines this sort of information from candies anyway?

I keep telling Andy and Alex how good they have it, and I am the cliche of every other parent who ever existed ever.  I remember hearing how good I had it way back in 1988, but I always thought to myself,  "Nah.  I could probably have it better.  It's not like I can pause Jem while I go to the bathroom."  And that, right there, is the amazing thing about being a child these days.  Television that is ready when you are.  A TV show that gets paused so you can leave the room and pee.  Video on Demand.  Fast forwarding through the tedious bits. Hundreds of shows available for streaming on Netflix.  Andy is confused by commercials since he so rarely has to watch one.  Sometimes, when he actually sees a commercial, he thinks it's a new show to watch.  "Let's watch that one again!"  he might exclaim after a Matchbox car commercial.  "I like that show with the little cars and the racetrack and the thing about batteries not included."

I wonder what the future holds in this amazing world.  One day, Andy may be telling his children about a time in which M&M's were not yet delicious holograms in a literal rainbow of colors.  And he may be saying this to a child who has never ever watched Caillou because he gets to actually BE Caillou.  How that technology might work, I don't yet know.  Ask Andy in thirty years.