The New England Confectionary Company – NECCO – makes lots of vintage brands of gluten-free sweets that perhaps you too grew up eating: Necco Wafers, Conversation Hearts/Sweet Hearts, Sky Bar and through acquisition Squirrel Nut Zippers…
I happened to work next door to two of their factories, at two different times, from two different eras….
Their original buildings still stand and are in the midst of gentrification. I have outlined on trace the classic logo long faded on the side of the funky buildings (circa 1901) in the fort point section of Boston.
(There was once a music joint – The Channel – on the location of where the autos are parked in the below picture. I occasionally spun vinyl and saw many a band there: Ramones, Ministry, Big Black, The Residents w/ Snake Finger, Sisters of Mercy….yikes, I could go on.)
When I worked near the other Necco location (not pictured) in Cambridge MA. there were large four or five inch hose connections sticking out of the building with labels like “corn syrup” printed above them; large trucks would pull up and hose-in ingredients to the plant through the connections. You could smell sugar cookin’ in the air around town. I never did see a “gluten” spigot nor any little men sweeping the candy floor at closing time, but I often hummed the “Oompa Loompa” song…
Filed under: Candy, No Cooking | Tagged: american, Big Black, boston, cambridge, Candy, channel, confection, fort point, gluten-free, Ministry, necco, old time, Ramones, Sisters of Mercy, squirrel nut zippers, sweet hearts, sweets, the channel, The Residents w/ Snake Finger, vintage, wafers | 1 Comment »
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