Do you have a favorite
"candy you ate as a kid" story?
Share it here.It was almost Easter, shortly after the Spanish American War when my mother, Ethel (b. 1897), watched her father, David P. Rogers and his two friends from the war, Uncle Ed Smith and D. L. Clark make candy in her basement near McKeesport, Pennsylvania. This sweet hobby produced a product they called the Bolster Bar, a peanut-butter crunchy candy covered with milk chocolate.As years went on, Uncle Ed bought out my grandfather's interest in the candy business and produced the Bolster Bars officially for public consumption. As fate would have it, D. L. Clark, the "success story" of the three friends, bought out Uncle Ed, and the Clark Bar was born!
Uncle Ed moved West and settled somewhere in California, and the sweet memory of the Clark Bar in its infancy remains in my memory to this day through my momma's stories. She told me how D. L. ran test samples by her and my grandfather to see if they liked them. What's not to like?! So, to this day, when I buy a Clark Bar, I think of good old D. L., Uncle Ed and Grandpa, and what fun they must have had eating their mistakes as the Bolster Bar laid the groundwork for the Clark Bar that we love so much today. ~ Martha from Florida
