The "Just Peckin' Away" Story

"Peeps" for my 3 grandkids

It was an ordinary day.  Just got back from the grocery store.  One of the few times in the last couple of months that I didn't have to spend over $100 to get my groceries.  And to top it off, I even managed to buy a couple of boxes of "Peeps" with the groceries.  You know, the marshmallow candy that looks like and reminds you of a baby chicken.  Easter is approaching and they are always a favorite in the baskets that Amah and Tampah hide around the house for our grandkids to try and find.  This will be the 60th year of the "Peep" which is made in nearby Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at the just Born factory.  What a neat name for a company that makes the marshmallow confections.  But "Peeps" were actually born in Lancaster, PA when Roscoe Rodda opened a candy company in the city in 1910.  Roscoe was the confectioner behind the Rodda Candy Company which introduced a small line of marshmallow chicks and bunnies and hired dozens of women who had to hand-squeeze them out of pastry bags.  The women gained great strength in their arms because of all the chicks and bunnies they had to squeeze from the pastry bags.  It was in 1953 that Rodda sold his business to Sam Born and the Just Born Candy Company.  Bob Born, a family member who was a physicist and engineer, automated the hand process in the mid-50s and a form of the machine he invented is still used today.  Just Born produces (hatches) five million "Peeps" a day and one billion per Easter season at their plant in Bethlehem.  "Peeps" are more than a treat to some.  It was said that in the '84 Olympics, Olympic medal winner Carl Lewis' diet consisted entirely of "Peeps. " When I was a child in the late 40s my mom and dad would buy me a couple of peeps every Easter, but these peeps were alive.  Dad would get out the chicken wire and place it in the yard and I would have a great time every Easter with the yellow chicks.  After a month or so my Grandpap would stop at the house and he and I would take the chickens to his brothers house in Brickerville, PA where he owned a chicken farm.  I suspect that one or more of those peeps probably found their way to our dinner table.  "Peeps" now have penetrated the pop-culture consciousness in a very different way.  You can eat them, smash them, microwave them or roast them on a stick.  There are art contests that feature them, recipes that feature them and even blogs that are about them.  Some like them fresh out of the package while others like them stale.  Some people report that they like to place a small slit in the plastic wrapper of the "Peep" wrapper, put them on top of their fridge for two days and then eat them.  Two days max seems to be the best for the perfect "Peep." How about you.  You like "Peeps"?  If so, I hope you get lots and lots of "Peeps" in your Easter basket this year.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.