A rumor circulated when I was in 6th Grade that if males drank soft drinks such as Mountain Dew (or was it Mello Yello?), their um.. you know.. manhood would shrink.  Why? These drinks contained Yellow 5. Now, none of us knew, and I still know what this ingredient actually is. However, the general rule is that if you caught a boy drinking these beverages, it was your duty to point this out with an embarrassed giggle.

To this day, I am unsure how or why this was a rumor.

Another rumor was not to mix pop rocks and Coke as you would die – contents in your stomach would explode. So, none of us drank this combination.

These were just a few rules we swore we’d live by – some unspoken oath similar to not stepping on the crack so you don’t break your mama’s back.

Facts? Who needed them at 11? Some made-up kid suffered the consequences of the choices above and never measured up in his manhood or, worse, succombed to an early death of pop rocks.

As these memories came back, I tried to remember other rumors or unspoken oaths that were a requirement in the middle school years. Jinx, touch red if you and a friend said the same thing at the same time.

Or if the back clasp of your necklace shifted to the front, it meant someone was thinking about you, which meant kissing the clasp and turning it around.

Also, moving the coke tab back and forth while stating the alphabet and praying, it broke off on the letter representing your crush.

There was no arguing. These rules were an assumed responsibility of every middle schooler ever. No questions asked.

I still think about them when walking on sidewalks and in conversations when I respond the same as someone else at the same time. I reframe from yelling “Jinx” for fear of a strange look, someone who clearly did not pledge the same oath. A shame, really!

Let’s not forget that MASH clearly prepared us for housing, spouse, kids, and car choices. 

Do they still make pop rocks? Did anyone not ever measure up for poor beverage choices and tell their spouse, “I’m sorry it was the Mello Yello.” Then, to make matters worse, their kid steps on a crack. A real, Shakespearean tragedy.

Jinx!