I walked through the corridors of the Wilkinson Center (BYU student center) about 5:30 nearly every day of the fall and winter semesters of 1972-3. After a full day of classes, 2 hours of piano practice, and facing a ton of homework ahead, this detour was my few moments of relaxing and treating myself. Back then, BYU had a candy counter the likes of which I had never seen. AND you could buy 10 cents worth of any candy. Who could feel guilty about spending 10 cents? My 10 cents usually went for jelly beans or cinnamon bears which were so incredibly fresh. I’ve never had better jelly beans or cinnamon bears. The jelly beans included the brown ones that had a spicy flavor, but I actually liked black and yellow best.

It happened that several days a week I would cross paths with a boy I knew. He was an acquaintance, not really a close friend. However, he found it amusing that I usually had a small 10-cent bag of jelly beans and would say, “Hey, Jelly Bean! How are you?” Slightly embarrassed, I smiled and said, “Just fine,” offered him a jelly bean, and walked on.

Forty years later, our paths crossed again. “Hey, Jelly Bean! How are you?”