I’m A Pepper

My college student, AKA The Hired Mouse, who was working with me during the summer to reduce my big ol’ pile of drafting backlog was a prodigious Dr. Pepper drinker. Adam usually downed a couple 20oz. bottles a day, but could finish off three of them before lunch on a dare. During this time frame Dr. Pepper was running a promotion that if you sent in twenty-three UPC symbols from the labels of the 20oz. bottles you would get a free Pepper Pack. The PP consisted of a ball cap, a T-shirt and a lunch box. Needless to say Adam responded to the challenge and in the span of a couple weeks had the required 23 labels.

The fine print said, “Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery – Offer good while supplies last.” There were no descriptions for the items, so Adam had no idea what any of this stuff would look like or when it would get to him. He tried to wait patiently, but he really did want to get his Pepper Pack before his employment was over at ASCO so he could show off his Pepper Pack.

Finally after about a month and a half he came in to work one day with a nice looking gray ball cap with a Dr. Pepper logo patch on the front. Not bad looking, I’d wear one of those. Adam was a big kid and he said even thought the Tee was an XL it was too small for him, so he gave it to his mom. And the lunch box was one of those old time rectangular metal things and was good for a collectible or collecting bits of junk in the garage.

Seeing as I drink Dr. Pepper too I thought maybe I’d go for a Pepper Pack as well. I don’t drink as much as Adam and with the offer expiring at the end of September I was in trouble. August was almost over, but my buddy Mark drinks and he offered to help. Sometime in the third week of September we had enough labels to mail in. With the phrase “Offer good while supplies last” and the fast approaching deadline, I didn’t think there was a very good chance I’d ever see a Pepper Pack, but what the heck it was only costing me a 39¢ stamp (we won’t count the cost of the soda as we would have drank that many in a month anyway.)

Having totally forgotten about the promotion, I was totally confused by the box from Minnesota in the mail last Saturday. Donna demanded to know what I’d ordered and I frantically search my memory banks for what I might have done. The only clue to what it might be was a small line at the bottom of the label that read Pepper Pack. I couldn’t think what that meant. Did someone send me a Christmas gift that consisted of the pepper of the month, January would be jalapeos, February might be habaneros, etc. It wasn’t until I saw the maroon metal lunch box that I remembered.

I’ve got a new favorite hat…