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Deftly shaping pretzels was a highlight of childhood
Every summer I spent several weeks visiting my cousin in Lititz, the small Pennsylvania town that was the source of that favorite snack of Americans everywhere - pretzels. They were popular long before people had nachos and chips, and I still love to have a few every day.
I took the exciting train ride "up" to Pennsylvania Dutch country from Philadelphia as a kid, and the conductor would come through the cars with a large basket offering individual boxes of these handmade snacks for purchase by the passengers.
Several times during my summer visits we would walk over to the factory in the middle of town. The pretzel shapers were all local women dressed in "plain dress" and wearing hair coverings of their various Pennsylvania Dutch sects. Since they knew of our relationship to the family, we were usually allowed to join the assembly line and actually form a few pretzels with our own hands.
Snaky rolls of dough about six inches long came slowly along a canvas conveyor belt past the workers, who deftly shaped them into twists as they went by, on the way to the big wooden shovel that lifted them into the big open fireplaces to bake.
At the end of a long process, the pretzels were packaged in the small cardboard boxes sold on the trains.
I remember how proud I was when we bought a box from the conductor, and I pointed out my great-uncle's name on the box. I always told the conductor the story of how the pretzel shape represents a child with head bowed and hands folded in prayer.
Do you think maybe, just maybe, one of those little boxes might have contained a pretzel I had made with my own hands? I always liked to think so.
The pretzel factory in Lititz still offers tours, in the same old building with the stone floors, and I laugh to myself when I think of the many times my cousin and I hopped into the dumb-waiters that ran from one floor to the next, to catch a ride with the big flour sacks. Life was so simple then, and so much fun . . .
If you visit Pennsylvania Dutch country, be sure to stop in and see it - and the Wilbur Chocolate Factory nearby. Try a Wilbur Bud and you will be surprised how much better they are than Hershey's Kisses.
Are you familiar with the West Florida Council on Aging's "Perfectly Aged" calendar? If you have seen the last few years' editions, you know that this is a tastefully done calendar with black-and-white photos featuring well-known local seniors.
Taking photos will begin soon, and they will go on sale well before the end of the year. This is a fund-raising effort we should all support, because money raised goes directly to the needs of senior citizens in northwest Florida. The co-chairs for this year's calendar are Dee Dee Ritchie and Donna Usry.
Good news, not just for Gulf Breezers but for everyone: the Tiger Point Country Club clubhouse has re-opened and is friendlier than ever. The clubhouse is open to the public, and you do not have to be a member to dine there.
If you are like me and have attended many organizational affairs at just one or two spots in town, you may have become a little bored with luncheons or dinners held at the same old location. You may want to consider the Sunset Grill at Tiger Point with its new outdoor pavilion and upstairs meeting room. And it's all right here in Gulf Breeze.
More funny Q and A for seniors:
Q: Why should senior citizens use valet parking?
A: Valets don't forget where they parked the car.
Q: Is it common for seniors to have problems with short term memory storage?
A: No. Storing memory is not a problem, retrieving it is a problem.
See you next week!
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