I’ve lived either in the northwestern Chicago suburb (“Chicagoland”) of Des Plaines, or an adjascent suburb, all my life. Even so, I never knew the city was home to a Farley & Sathers Candy plant, and that thus Chuckles, JujyFruits and Gummi Bears were made in my home town…until today, when I read the news that the plant was closing down and relocating to Iowa. Basically, Des Plaines is too built up to allow the plant to expand, so they are moving to Iowa (which is presumably cheaper, as well). The Des Plaines plant has been manufacturing nearly 2,000,000 lbs. of candy a week.
I’m actually not a huge candy guy…well, I’m huge, but not because of candy. I eat the stuff, but it’s not anywhere near my main vice, food-wise. And I probably haven’t had a Chuckle in ten or fifteen years.
Still, I have fond memories of them, and thought they were pretty decent for a jellied candy. It’s strange what gets you feeling nostalgic, and this story did it for me. Sometimes you just don’t know what you had until you lose it.
