An excerpt from
For the Love of Licorice: Licorice Lovers Share Sweet Memories
As a five-year old
boy in 1935 I would visit my grandpa’s German meat market in Chicago . He and Grandma would cheerfully tend
their customers from behind the immaculate display case showing a wide variety
of fresh meats and poultry. Grandpa wore his white butcher’s coat with straw
cuffs to protect his sleeves from the splatter when he chopped his cuts. He
wore a straw hat, white shirt, black bow tie, gold-rimmed spectacles. He had
sandy hair and a wonderful cookie-duster mustache. His round face always seemed
to be anticipating the next joke. Once in a while he would take out a long
slender orange, white, and black carton from his coat pocket and carefully
slide out a narrow black stick of hard Y&S licorice, which he placed on the
chopping block. Using his cleaver, he would chop off a half an inch and offer
it to me before he chopped another piece for himself. The strong rich flavor
was scrumptious as the hard licorice melted slowly in my mouth. It was much
more satisfying than any ordinary candy sucker, and I savored it all the more
because my grandpa shared his licorice stick with me. From then on I was hooked
on genuine licorice flavor. I never fail to think of my Grandpa when I partake
of real licorice. Now all of my grandkids are licorice freaks. -- Richard Wolk
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