Blast From the Past

This very morning, December 21, 2008, while waiting around for my rescheduled flight, I went through some papers of my Dad's. He'd saved a bunch of LIFE and Time magazines and a very few newspapers. Right on the top of the stack I found a copy of the Minneapolis Star Tribune from December 21, 1968, with the headline, "Man's First Moon Trip Underway." The triumphant prose captures the spirit of the those times, now 40 years past, when it seemed that anything was possible.

"Reaching into unexplored frontiers, America's Apollo 8 astronauts today soared higher and faster than man has ever flown and set sail across the uncharted ocean of space, aiming for a Christmas Eve orbit of the moon."

Something I found quaint about the article is that the critical points in the launch are reported as if the story is a local one: "at 9:41 Minneapolis time, the third stage was started. . ." It's unlikely that we missed that information in the first place, since I can remember watching almost every launch on TV at breakfast time in our yellow kitchen.

Food related: It was apparently of interest to Americans what the crew ate that morning: "Borman, Lovell and Anders were up at 2:36 AM for medical examinations and hearty breakfasts of steak, eggs, toast, coffee and orange juice." I think even some of the heartier LTHer's I know might think twice before eating that breakfast just prior to a space launch. (Note to self: light breakfast before flying.)

Once in a while one of the Baby Boomers here brings up the freeze dried food the astronauts ate in space. Here's a source from stevez in case you have not had the pleasure of trying these odd treats. Elsewhere, Cathy 2 reports that you can get freeze dried ice cream at the gift shop of the Museum of Science and Industry.

Or perhaps Lovell's of Lake Forest is having a special steak and eggs brunch today?

stevez wrote:Some time back, there was a thread about Tang and other astronaut related goodies. I spied a box of Space Food Sticks on my way out, for all you orbital candy fans.

Space Food Sticks


hi Sweetie
122 S. Main St.
Algonquin, IL
847-458-9898

Just a quick note for all you LTHers that are going to run out this morning to get your Space Food Sticks. Hi Sweetie has moved to the Algonquin Commons on Randall Road and County Line Road.

stevez wrote:Just a quick note for all you LTHers that are going to run out this morning to get your Space Food Sticks. Hi Sweetie has moved to the Algonquin Commons on Randall Road and County Line Road.

They had to move out of the Rt 31 store. Parking in that location was non-existent and that puts you in the middle of impossible traffic from 2-6 pm.

I will give the owner credit. She has what is perhaps the 2nd largest collections of unusual and nostalgic candies in the Midwest.

jlawrence01 wrote:

stevez wrote:Just a quick note for all you LTHers that are going to run out this morning to get your Space Food Sticks. Hi Sweetie has moved to the Algonquin Commons on Randall Road and County Line Road.

They had to move out of the Rt 31 store. Parking in that location was non-existent and that puts you in the middle of impossible traffic from 2-6 pm.

I will give the owner credit. She has what is perhaps the 2nd largest collections of unusual and nostalgic candies in the Midwest.

What's the largest? I wanna go!

B. A. SWEETIE CANDY COMPANY INC.
7480 Brookpark Road,
Cleveland, Ohio 44129

Phone 216.739.2244
Toll Free 888.267.9340
Email sales@sweetiescandy.com
Internet http://www.SweetiesCandy.com

HOURS OF OPERATION* (EST)
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
Monday-Friday 9:00am to 7:00pm
Saturday 10:00am to 6:00pm
Sunday 11:00am to 4:00pm
*Closed Major Holidays

FROM THEIR WEBSITE:

b. a. Sweetie is open to the public and started back in 1950 as Bag-A-Sweet Candy located on Brookpark Road in Parma, Ohio. Started by Albert Tokar and his brother-in-law Frank Stasny, Bag-A-Sweet was primarily a re-bagger of bulk candy which was sold to local grocery, convenient, and drug stores. The bagged candy which sold for 19¢ to 59¢ each were delivered to the stores by a network of 8 independent distributors. Each driver would go to the candy section, write down the items that he needed to take out of the truck, and replenish the candy department. During the late 70’s the company serviced over 250 stores from that little two story garage. As the business climate changed in the early 80’s, a lot of the independent stores closed.

Interest rates to borrow money were close to 20% and the customer base was shrinking, Frank had already retired and Al was getting old. The Tokar family decided to sell the company to the current owner in 1982. Tom Scheiman had known Al since he got into the wholesale candy business in 1970 and decided to buy the ity bity Bag-A-Sweet. In order to survive, the decision was made to leave the 1,200 foot garage and move to a larger facility that was more condusive to traffic volumes and open the candy warehouse to the public. The company prospered for the next 10 years opening up 10 additional retail stores in malls across northeast Ohio named after his son Joey: “Joey’s Candies.” During the early 90’s, Bag-A-Sweet closed all of the retail stores and went back to the basics of wholesaling.

The corporate name changed to b. a. Sweetie Candy Company Inc. in 1993 with the introduction of the new retail store Sweeties Candy. The company moved in 1997 to a 6,000 square foot location on Brookpark Road in the City of Brooklyn, Ohio. Over the past 11 years the company has more than doubled its square footage to over 14,000. Today, we are selling candy completely different than we did in 1950. We continue to service a few locally owned grocery stores and other retailers but now we sell to the world! We operate one of the largest web businesses in the United States. We may have grown a lot in our 56 plus years but our mission has never changed....

=======================================

I used to stop into b.a. Sweetie's almost weekly as it was down the street from my wife's business in Cleveland. I have discussed certain candies that I was looking for with the owner and he is really enthusiastic about finding any new candies and of the "old favorites" from the past. He has also been a pretty reliable resource for finding out if a candy is no longer made.

If you fly into Cleveland's Hopkins Int'l Airport, b.a. Sweetie is about 15 minutes from the airport.

Hope that helps.

By the way, while they have mail order, the prices are substantially higher than in the store.

Josephine wrote:"Reaching into unexplored frontiers, America's Apollo 8 astronauts today soared higher and faster than man has ever flown and set sail across the uncharted ocean of space, aiming for a Christmas Eve orbit of the moon."

I've got some of those old newspapers stashed as well. I still remember watching that Christmas eve broadcast from a friends house.

There's a great interview with the Apollo 8 crew on the NASM web site: http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/lectures/ ... rchive.cfm

And for the record, the "Tang" that the astronauts got was spiked with calcium and other crap, which made it just about undrinkable. I'd bet to this day any of them would wretch at the very mention of the stuff. Of course the stuff in stores that you and I could buy wasn't much better