THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.DATE: Monday, July 8, 1996 TAG: 9607070417SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL TYPE: Column SOURCE: Larry Maddry LENGTH: 70 lines
THERE MAY NOT BE many constants left in a shifting, complex, computerizedworld but - by gosh - the Tootsie Roll is one of them.
So much has been going on with Filegate and the bombing in Saudi Arabiathat you may have overlooked the fact that the chocolaty, chewy Tootsie Rollis celebrating its 100th anniversary.
In honor of the anniversary I just finished one of the little brownbeauties. Not quite as tasteful as when I was a lot younger and hungrier.
But it still tasted good, a blend of cocoa, sugar, milk and corn syrup.
The Tootsie Roll is very much like the Zippo lighter - another durable andnearly indestructible product that always seems to work.
There's never been a candy like it. In fact, only a fool would make a candythat looks like something our veterinarian asks for in a covered containerwhen doing a worm check.
The fool - a very clever guy as it turns out - was Leo Hirschfield, anAustralian immigrant who brought his candy recipe to the U.S. in 1896. Henamed the candy for his 5-year-old daughter Clara, nicknamed ``Tootsie.''
Tootsie has come a long way, baby. Tootsie Roll Industries has a factorythat can crank out 49 and one-half MILLION Tootsie Rolls a day! If the numberof Tootsie Rolls produced in a single year were placed end to end they wouldstretch to the moon and back.
I remember the Tootsie Roll best from the sandlot baseball games of myyouth. The Tootsie Roll was made for baseball. I stuffed a large Tootsie Rollin my back pocket before the game. It would last for all nine innings.
Other candy bars would get smashed to pieces when you sat on them in thedugout. Not the Tootsie. In the outfield - my usual position - when youwanted a burst of energy you just bit off a chaw. You could smell the candy'sbrown waxy-sweet scent back there in your pocket, along with the smell ofonion grass under your feet.
More important, perhaps, is that a Tootsie made you look and feel like aballplayer. You bit off a chaw as though tearing into a plug of tobacco. Itbulged your cheek like a wad.
And when you spat - spitting and scratching are what baseball has alwaysbeen about - it looked just as brown and disgusting as when major leaguers didit.
Chocolate bars might melt in your mouth but they also melted in the sun.Not a Tootsie. And it rarely if ever got attacked by ants, which were alwayslingering around the dugout or swarming over ant hills beyond the infield. Ifants got on a Tootsie, you just brushed them off and ate it. For the ant,invading a Tootsie was like trying to get inside a chocolate-covered crowbar.
The Tootsie Roll seems like a blue-collar person's candy, but there havebeen some rich and prominent folks who loved 'em. One was Frank Sinatra - whoinsisted on having them in his hotel room whenever he was booked for anengagement. And singer Sammy Davis Jr. used to toss them to audiences wheneverhe sang ``Candy Man.''
Nobody at the Tootsie headquarters in Chicago knew what the record was fora Tootsie Roll that held its shape and flavor over the years. But one thing isclear, the Tootsie is the candy equivalent of the Egyptian mummy when it comesto longevity.
``We have some that were made in 1938 that we still eat,'' said MelvinGordon, Tootsie Roll Industries board chairman.
And no one knows what the record number of dental fillings sucked fromteeth by a single Tootsie Roll is, either. But the company has received aletter from a dentist who said he used a mass of Tootsie Rolls rather thandental clay when making a mold for dentures.
Oh, I almost forgot. That factory in Chicago can spit out 1,050 pieces ofthe candy a minute.
Talk about being on a roll.ILLUSTRATION: The chocolate candy was named after its inventor's
daughter, "Tootsie." by CNB
