Dear Sun Spots: The Compassionate Friends is an international self help organization for parents, grandparents and siblings grieving the death of a child of any age. The Lewiston chapter is in the process of putting out a newsletter to reach grieving families and to let them know that they are not alone. To have your child’s name listed on our memorial page, phone Belinda Kleeberger (207) 336-2781 or e-mail at [email protected]. We are also accepting donations from area businesses and individuals to help us with our printing, mailing and outreach efforts. A donation of $25 or more will put your name on our Thank You page for one year (four issues). The Compassionate Friends is a nonprofit organization and we ask for no dues or registration fees from families who attend our monthly meetings held from 6 to 8 p.m. every second Wednesday at d’Youville Pavilion across from St. Mary’s hospital – Belinda Kleeberger, Buckfield.

Dear Sun Spots: I attended the music camp in Farmington each summer from 1963 to 1968. During the concerts each week, they taped the music. Would anyone have any information on where these tapes might be located? And, if I could buy copies? I may be reached at 25 Boston Ave., Lewiston, ME 04240. – Gregg Vincent, Lewiston.

Dear Sun Spots: I have been all around the Lewiston-Auburn area to find some spruce gum. I cannot find it anywhere. Would anyone have any information where it is sold? If so, please share this information. – No Name, No Town.

Answer: Unfortunately Sun Spots did not locate any. However, you might be interested in noting that according to the National Association of Chewing Gum Manufacturers, www.nacgm.org, civilizations around the world were chewing natural gum thousands of years ago. Before the invention of the electric light bulb, the telephone or even soda pop, people discovered the pleasure and benefits of chewing gum!

In A.D. 50, ancient Greeks were believed to chew mastiche, tree resin from the mastic tree. Researchers also discovered that the Mayans, an Indian civilization that inhabited Central America during the second century, enjoyed chewing chicle. This natural gum comes from the latex of the sapodilla tree and later became the main ingredient in chewing gum.

The American Indians discovered another natural form of gum-like resin by cutting the bark of spruce trees. They introduced the custom of chewing spruce gum to the early North American settlers. These savvy New Englanders created the first commercial chewing gum by selling and trading lumps of spruce. Spruce gum continued to be sold in 19th century America until the 1850s when paraffin wax became the new popular base for chewing gum.

Modern chewing gum products appeared in 1869. Mexican General, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, conqueror of the Alamo, hired New York inventor Thomas Adams to develop a new form of rubber using chicle. Chicle is the same gummy substance people in Mexico had been chewing for centuries. Adams was unsuccessful in developing rubber, but he did succeed in producing the first modern chewing gum. He called it Adams New York No. 1.

Gum made with chicle and similar latexes soon became more popular than spruce gum or paraffin gum. Chicle-base chewing gum was smoother, softer and held its flavor better than any previous type of chewing gum. By the 1900s chewing gum was manufactured in many different shapes and sizes (long pencil-shaped sticks, ball form, flat sticks and blocks) and flavors (peppermint, fruit and spearmint).

Bubble gum was invented in 1928 by Walter Diemer, a cost analyst for the Fleer Co. Many people had tried for years to develop a gum that could be blown into bubbles, but it was Diemer, a young man who knew nothing about chemistry, who found the right combination of ingredients and created a gum that was strong enough and elastic enough to stretch when filled with air.

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be posted at www.sunjournal.com in the Advice section under Opinion on the left-hand corner of your computer screen. In addition, you can e-mail your inquiries to [email protected].