Grandkids are so much fun, when they’re young. They grow up fast, and suddenly everyone is going in different directions. One of our fondest memories of our grandkids is visiting the Spangler Candy Company. You got to take a tour through the factory, which is almost unheard of these days.
It reminded us of when our children were small, and we took the tour of the Kellogg factory. This was so much fun, and you received a six pack of individual boxes of cereal as you left. This tour was discontinued long ago.
At the candy company they gave you a tour in a little trolley, with a friendly driver. Our granddaughter got to sit with the driver. The most amazing thing is how the huge overhead doors open just by a command from the driver. I think you got free Dum Dums at the end, but this is inconsequential because you have a shopping bag full, as you leave the store.
I had long been exposed to the company as my brother-in-law had worked there for years. After he moved, he lived in the Grabill area but he never forgot his roots in Ohio. His parents had a farm on Highway 2. It seems like Bryan is such a nice town, just the right size.
I’m amazed by courthouse, and one day stopped to go through the courthouse. There wasn’t a whole lot going on, many towns have abandoned their courthouse for new buildings, but there’s something about the ornate appearance of the old courthouses.
I have only seen the Christmas lights off the courthouse once but they are quite spectacular. Someone had to be quite ingenious to rig these lights up. As technologies change, and the 100 watt bulb is no longer, this light display too will probably have to change. The Coffee Cup Restaurant had been a standby for years.
Our grandkids are in high school, and we wonder what we could do together. Actually there’s not much time after they are through with their activities. Just the other day we had the most fun going to a local Amish store.
Perhaps part of the reason companies like Kellogg’s have ceased their factory tours, is because of our litigious society, and the need to buy millions of dollars worth of liability insurance. Talk about high inflation, a penny Dum Dum at the candy store today cost me 14 cents.
At a time when things are changing at a dizzying pace, and we are struggling to keep up with technology, it’s good to know that some things never change, like Dum-Dums.
—James Neuhouser
