story time

I'd like to talk about 2 things I read

    And no,  they were not in the Trib!

    One was in our AARP magazine and concerned a 70 year old woman who met a nice looking gentleman in a bar.  Not bar hopping, but a local spot.

    They hit it off immediately.

    He was an art dealer in New York.  Drove a luxury car.  He was suave, good looking, kind, and generous.  She fell in love.

    After several months they moved in together.  He often forgot his wallet, needed extra cash to pay a bill, was waiting on a commission.  He took frequent trips to New York.

    You can see where this is going, right?

    He conned her out of several thousand dollars.  When her family finally convinced her to go to the police, the investigator found several women the guy was dating.  The luxury car belonged to one of them.

    He eventually was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay back almost $2 million to the women he had conned.

    There is a special place in Hell for people like that.

    The other story is much sweeter.

    In 1893 the Century of Progress was held in Chicago.  The World's Fair drew a lot of people with it special displays and products. 

    A candy maker from Germany set up a chocolate making factory as a display and they made chocolate.

    Now, according to Neil Steinberg of Every G--damn Day, chocolate was not popular in the US.  Caramel was, but not chocolate.

    A caramel maker from Pennsylvania had a plant in Chicago to cut down on transportation and supply issues.  Chicago was the center for both.

    He visited his plant in Chicago and the fair.  He was impressed by the chocolate factory and when the fair closed on Oct. 30, he bought all the chocolate making machinery and moved it to Pennsylvania.

    Milton Hershey thought caramel was a fad and would soon die out.  His belief in chocolate seemed to pan out.

    I just thought that was a neat story.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace