Sweetest Memories

An Ol’ Timey Classic: Maple Rock Candy

Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor: where the world’s best-ever birthday parties were hosted.

I’m dating myself here, but looooong before Ikea came on the scene with their DIY dystopian and panic-inducing floor plan, and waaaaay before theme parks starting guiding people through a gift shop maze as the only way to exit, there was the evil genius of Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor. Every kid LOVED it there. Every parent put up with it because their kid loved it.

After consuming a belly-busting amount of ice cream to the tune of sirens, drums, and the Happy Birthday song sung by employees dressed like Toot Sweet dancers from Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, all us kids eagerly anticipated the long walk down a narrow single-file path toward the cash register and only exit…right past a ginormous touchy-feely candy display. Now, every kid knew that if you went out that exit door you would never get back inside to candy nirvana because there was no door handle on the outside of the exit door!

So, there we were, a parade of kids touching all that candy, begging with our eyes, bodies smashed together, jockeying for position to see the cash register and what the poor (or soon to be poor) paying parent would buy. Those were the days!

So, of course I am determined to make the candy of my childhood dreams with a Vermont twist: MAPLE ROCK CANDY! When I succeed you’ll see it for sale here at Cary & Main Co. and I’ll invite you to my party!