RUBBER BANDS and CHEWING GUM

Just like maple syrup, chewing gum and rubber bands also come from tree sap. Sap is kind of like blood, except for trees. It runs up and down the insides of trees all over the world, making them healthy. The sap of rubber trees is used is all over the place, for pencil erasers, in gym balls, in the giant balloons in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Even the stretchy stuff in your socks and underwear is made out of the sap of the rubber tree! When Christopher Columbus came back from the New World, his most amazing souvenir was a rubber ball – the first one anyone had ever seen in Europe. At the Indy 500, racing car tires are made of rubber, and so are the walls!

Here’s a picture of my humongous chewing gum collection on display at Jones Beach for a concert with Tatiana Ali and 98 Degrees.

There’s this stuff called resin. It’s kinda like sap, but not really. It’s gooey and sticky and fills up the inside of plants. It can be very healthy for people – the resin of the aloe plant can help our skin heal. When resin dries, it turns into a beautiful stone called amber. Like a fossilized dinosaur footprint, it only takes a few million years, so don’t bother looking under your desk for any old bubble gum that’s turned into a valuable jewel! Here is some snazzy amber jewelry.