He leaves behind his wife, Nancy (Rexrode) Smith, two sons, Donald Smith Jr. and wife Maranda of New Castle, DE, Noel Smith and Jennifer of Swanton, three daughters, Donna Curtin and husband Richard of East Bridgewater, MA, Sungvien Uber and husband Allen of Swanton, and Monica Savage and husband Jason of Oakland.
Although chewing gum is designed to be chewed and not swallowed, it generally isn't harmful if swallowed. Folklore suggests that swallowed gum sits in your stomach for seven years before it can be digested. But this isn't true. If you swallow gum, it's true that your body can't digest it. But the gum doesn't stay in your stomach. It moves relatively intact through your digestive system and is excreted in your stool. On rare occasions, large amounts of swallowed gum combined with constipation have blocked intestines in children.
Claim: Chewing gum takes seven years to pass through the human digestive system. Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2000] Last night, I gave our son a small piece of gum. I figure it's better, overall, for his teeth than candy. He normally spits it out, but last night he swallowed it. My husband read me the riot act. Swallowing gum is really bad for you, you know, he said. Now, when I was a kid, I remember other kids saying it takes seven years to digest gum if you swallow it, but that smacks of an old wives' tale to me. Origins: It's hard to find anyone who hasn't heard this specious claim about swallowed gum, usually when they were children.