Last night it hit me...we live in a Grape-Flavored World. 

So far I have only dealt with sniffles and little cuts. I  have only doled out meds that were already in the cabinets. This was my first real illness, which included a trip to the doctor. It turns out the 5-year old has a serious cold/sinus infection. He gets to be on anit-biotics and OTC (over the counter) stuff. 

I go to fill the scrip and ask the pharmacist to show me where the OTC cough syrup is.
She asks me, " what flavor?"
*blink**blink* "Ummm, cough syrup flavor?" 
She then says, " Weel, you have about 5 flavors to choose from."
 WHAT?!?  When the hell did this happen? 

Back in my day when you got sick, you got meds and you took them. I'm pretty sure the only flavor they came in was "ass" and "chalk" and sometimes a mixture of both. If the meds did not come in liquid form, they came in a pill. You didnt know how to swallow a pill? Too bad sweet cheeks! You get those pills crushed and served to you on a spoon, with a dab of honey and down your throat it goes! You might have foamed at the mouth, but you took it. 

While I waited for the ant-biotic, I sat on the floor of the pharmacy--because all the childrens meds were on kids sight level, I guess-- and looked in amazement at the wonders of childrens medicine today:

• Meltaway Tabs: Okay, what acid trip hippie turned medical inventor came up with that??
• Easy-Melting Strips: Huh, interesting. 
• Cough Syrup Lollipops: Anything with a stick hanging out of it is cool.
• Chewable Pills: Nice. I remember the chalk tasting baby aspirin from my day.
• and last but not least Easy To Swallow Liquid: Well I hope so. It is liquid!  

Next I looked at the flavor: cherry, banana, watermelon, bubble gum, berry blast and grape .  WOW! I considered myself schooled and made my decision.

I chose cherry. What's not to like about cherry? The anti-biotic only came in banana berry, okay sounds fine. But it suspiciously looked like the ass-chalk mixture I had when I was a kid. I paid and walked out the door.

 Ha! I handled that like a pro!

I swaggered on home, told the 5 year old I got his medicine and went to get a little spoon measure thingie.  He calls out from the living room...."is it GRAPE?"

*sigh*