They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, this is the part of the site with the thousand words. Stories from people who have either been on both sides of the bubble. If you want to comment about the stories to the authors, send me mail and I'll pass it on to the appropriate person. (Just be sure to let me know which story you are writing about!) Also, if you have stories of your own, send them in! Be sure to let me know how you want to be credited.

The Mother-in-Law.
No joke, my 57-year-old mother-in-law is a nice bubble blower, when she wants to be. Let me explain. When my wife and I were still dating, back in 1993, we went with my mother-in-law to Baltimore. In the car, I offered her a piece of sugarless Bubble Yum, grape flavor, and she accepted. This was the first time she had chewed bubble gum since I met her. While she was chewing, she would regularly make tiny pea-size bubbles and crack them, just like she would do with regular gum. However, about twenty minutes later, I turned to look at her and saw a nice, face-sized bubble in front of her! I thought to myself, "She has potential!" However, my mother-in-law is a tough nut to crack. She tells me that she doesn't like to blow bubbles and she gets annoyed when I ask her to blow them. Never fear, there is a happy ending to this story. I have learned that patience is a virtue with my mother-in-law. All I do now is wait until we are watching TV together or are riding in the car on a long trip. In these situations, if I don't say anything, she blows about two or three good bubbles in a chewing. The bubbles are few, but they are worth it. Her crowning moment came this past Thanksgiving when we were watching TV. With sugarless Bubble Yum, no less, she blew about ten good grapefruit-to-face-sized bubbles in one chewing! In my thoughts, I was so proud of her! To all avid watchers reading this story, the moral is, "Patience is a virtue."

The Hair Stylist.
Last year, while I was getting my hair cut, I shared some Bubble Yum with the woman who was cutting my hair. She was a pretty good bubble blower, but she showed me a trick that just about floored me! She actually blew a bubble inside her mouth without opening it! This was really weird and hard to describe. While her mouth was closed, she went through the motions. Then, when she opened her mouth, lo and behold, there was a bubble on the end of her tongue! I still can't believe it to this day.

A Day at the Ballpark
I went to a Valley League (amateur) baseball game in Winchester, Virginia on the 4th of July. I had a feeling that I was in for some good bubble watching when I saw that Bazooka was sold at the concession stand. Sure enough, out of the 1,000 people in attendance, there were at least SEVEN women in visual range who were blowing bubbles! Out of those seven, there were three who were showing some good form. They were blowing grapefruit-to-face-sized bubbles. Needless to say, I was in "bubble heaven"!

What's the Matter with Kids Today?
I discovered that kids are often a good choice when watching for bubble blowing, for the simple fact that they usually like to see how big they can blow them before they pop (unless a very manners-conscious parent interferes, grumble grumble). I went with a friend to a Calgary Cannons baseball game on the weekend. In the row behind us, a few seats down, was this girl, maybe about 12 or 13, and the makings of a very lovely lady to boot, who didn't seem to be too interested in the game. She was consistently blowing bubbles the size of her head and letting them pop on her face. It was great, except for the fact that she left during the 6th inning.