Trip to Hershey Pa.
One day in the mid 1970's I woke up with a hunger for something sweet to eat and the first thing that came to mind was a hershey. I woke my wife and kids, called my bro in law and asked if they would like to go for a ride. My son Joey, being adventurous, said yes. My daughter deb, for some reason, didn't go and stayed by her friend, but my bro and sis in law had to be convinced. We discussed going the night before but my son had a fever and we were not sure we would go. It was a warm morning and my son wanted to go and said he felt alright so we all got dressed and being my in laws lived only about a mile from where I lived, we drove over to their house. I knocked on the door and seeing that they were already dressed I asked if they would like to go to Hershey Pennsylvania for the day. They said ok and off we went heading for Pennsylvania.
As I recall it was early in the morning and the traffic was fairly light as I crossed over the Verrazano Narrows bridge into Staten Island. The toll then was 50¢ in each direction. It is now $7.00, but that is going into Staten Island from Brooklyn. There is no charge going back to Brooklyn.
Driving thru Staten Island and over the Outer Bridge crossing into New Jersey and onto the New Jersey Turnpike was uneventful. It took about 1 hour to reach the turnpike from my house and about another hour to reach the Pa. Turnpike.
I was driving along the Pa turnpike and chatting and joking with my in laws and enjoying the ride when along came a Pa. state trooper and pulled me over.
We finally arrived in the town of Hershey and we discovered that it was in Amish country. There were a couple of Amish driving their horse and buggy down the road. Never seeing any Amish folks it looked strange to me, but i got used to seeing them as the day went on.
Each year, visitors from around the world journey to Pennsylvania's Amish, or "Pennsylvania Dutch," Country to spend a few hours, or a few days, exploring the natural beauty of their farmlands, the many nearby historic sites and the numerous family oriented attractions and theme parks that dot the roadside.
We continued on to the Hersey factory and we went thru with a tour and had a taste of all kinds of chocolate candy that they made at that time. Today it is a much bigger place and I probably wouldn't recognize it anymore.
This chocolate-coated candy kingdom has grown from Milton S. Hershey's company town to an internationally known community, complete with a world-class amusement park and resort complex. There's no getting around it. Hershey has built a reputation for itself, and remains proud of it. Throughout the community, visitors will find reminders of its sweet heritage, from the heavenly smell of chocolate in the making to streets like Chocolate and Cocoa avenues that are lined with Hershey's Kisses street lights. A stroll through the magnificent Hershey Gardens gives you a glimpse of Mr. Hershey's tribute to his wife.
Beyond the chocolate, adventures await. Each year, more than 2 million visitors find their thrills at Hersheypark, a world-famous attraction complete with heart-pounding roller coasters and show-stopping entertainment. Adjacent to the park lies ZooAmerica, an 11-acre, year-round North American wildlife park featuring more than 200 animals of 75 species. Special seasonal events include the Creatures of the Night. And just because the winter winds start blowing, don't think Hersheypark shuts down for the season. Transformed by the twinkling of half a million tiny lights, the park becomes Christmas Candylane, a holiday favorite for children of all ages. Ride the carousel, visit with Santa at the "North Pole," shop for unique gifts and enjoy the sweet treats in this winter wonderland.
After visting the candy factory we went to a pretzel factory that was nearby.
It was very enjoyable watching how they made all the different kinds of pretzels from sticks to very thick beer pretzels. The thing that i found very informative was that as we watched the pretzles being automatically filled into bags, the company names of the bags changed and different shaped pretzles filled the different company bags. It occured to me that this one pretzel company was making pretzels for more than one company and distributing them under different names.
After filling our bellies full of chocolate candy and all kinds of pretzels, we all were tired.
We looked for a place to spend the night and picked a bed and breakfast place on a farm. My room was up in the attic but it was comfortable. In the morning we had a very good breakfast. As we were leaving the owner told us we could pick some corn to take home with us and so we did. we found out later that the corn was very hard and not too good to eat. We headed home happy and content. I had almost forgotten that I had received a speeding ticket, but drove very carefully back home.