The general concensus of newspaper articles and Web sites place the origin of "sponge candy" in upstate New York. Buffalo appears to be the epicenter. We find much information about the current product but scant details regarding the history of the recipe. Many sources (including company Web sites) vaguely date the recipe in the 1940s. The origins are family secrets.

Apparently this product (or similar products) is known in other parts of the country by different names: fairy candy, fairy food, sea foam, angel food and honeycomb toffee. An examination of old confectionery texts confirms recipes with these names. Some of these may approximate sponge candy, others might produce very different products. One of "signature" ingredients in sponge candy is baking soda. This ingredient is generally omitted from the other recipes.

"Those who know about it come in with mouths watering, cast their gaze across the rows of chocolate creams and molds to see if they'll taste any today. You see, to get sponge candy at Stone Brothers Home Made Candies, conditions have to be jsut right. And that means candy junkies are sometims left wanting for a delicacy seldom found outside upstate New York. "It's something I don't think exists in other parts of the country," said William Long...Other than Stone's a nine-worker enterprise...Long knows of only three small companies in Buffalo that make the melt-in-your-mouth mixture of corn syrup, sugar, water, gelatin, baking soda and chocolate..."Usually the only place you see it in Central New York is in a retail shop,"...While whipping up a batch shortly before Christmas, Stone's owner...said, "Some people comapre the taste to malted milk balls, but it's not quite like that...Stachowicz and candymaker Tom Wall make 1,000 pounds of sponge candy from early November through April. They make about 150 pounds at a time in a painstaking two-day process. "Weather conditons have to be perfect,"...Atmosphere pressure must be above 30 pounds per square inch and humidity must be below 50 percent in the back shop. Without those conditions, warm, moist air sucks too many bubbles out of the sponge and takes away the scratchy chewiness that defines the product...It starts with a 60-pound copper bowl, coarse sugar, thick corn syrup, water, a long wooden stick and a tall thermometer. When the mixture bubbles to 293 degrees, the copper bowl is removed from a gas-fired stove and gelatin is added. In exactly 90 seconds, baking soda is added, turning the mix from a dark tan to a light gold...the mixture [put] "to sleep" overnight in 2-foot-by-4 foot metal boxes...called "coffins." [the candymaker] covers the boxes with blankets. Next morning, the "heart" of the mix is coated with a 1/45-inch thick swirl of wood-hard candy..."It's impossible for someone to make a small batch at home because the tough hide would swallow the tender core...[the candymaker] cuts the core int o 1-by-1 inch squares...[and them] takes the squares to the "enrobing room," where they are dressed in either light or dark chocolate...Sponge candy is one of 33 recipes Raymond Stone passed along with the store, Stone, who started making candy in his basement in 1940, died several years ago."
---"Move Over, Candy Bars: Sponge candy 'Eats like a Million Bucks'," Scott Scanlon, Post-Standard (Syracuse NY), January 8, 1992 (Accent, P. 1)

Wasaga Beach and the surrounding area was originally occupied by the Huron Indians. After the Huron were dispersed in 1650, Algonkian-speaking people moved into the area. The word Nottawasaga is of Algonquin origin. Nottawa means "Iroquois" and Saga means "mouth of the river", and the word "Nottawasaga" was passed along by Algonquin scouts to notify when they saw Iroquois raiding parties approaching.[5]

In the early 1800s Upper Canada was drawn into a struggle between Great Britain and the United States. The Town evolved into a strategic location in the War of 1812 when the schooner HMS Nancy was sunk at her moorings in an effort by the Americans to cut the supply line to Fort Michilimackinac and points to the north and west.[6] Lumbering was the main industry for the remainder of the 19th century. Logs crowded the river and the bay floating down to feed local saw mills.[7]

Jack loved his Molson's and even name his suds Soliders. Fond memories of dad with his man cave in the garage. A big old refridgerator with a padlock from the plant gaurded his soliders. Watching TV sitting on the plush fake green turf, Dad and I had some good memories.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUzbJ6LeaVc

After the invention of the accordion in 1829, its popularity spread throughout the world, in no small measure due to the polka craze. "Once the polka became a craze in Paris and London during the spring of 1844, it diffused rapidly to the rest of the world. . . . In March 1844, polka-mania took Paris: common people, servants, workers and, one assumes, anyone else who wasn't too stuffy were dancing the polka in the streets of the capital and soon in Bordeaux and other French cities as well. A week or so later it took London by storm. And from these two great centers of fashion, empire, and influence, the polka diffused rapidly upward into the rest of French and English society and outward to the rest of the world." [3]

In 1946, the school officially opened its doors with a class of 76 freshmen. For three years, Bishop Timon – St. Jude High School was temporarily housed at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Buffalo's old First Ward. On September 6, 1949, Timon moved into its current home on McKinley Parkway with an enrollment of approximately 800 young men. In June 1950, Bishop O'Hara awarded diplomas to Bishop Timon's first graduating class. The school was named Bishop Timon after Buffalo's first bishop, John Timon. In 1993, the school added St. Jude to its name.[2]

Bishop Timon High School was founded by Roman Catholic priests of the Franciscan Order Minor, with the idea of providing a quality education at an affordable cost for the largely working-class Irish-American community within the proximity of itsSouth Buffalo neighborhood location. The Franciscan commitment to the needs of the area was the impetus for opening this all-boys college preparatory high-school to the local neighborhood's mostly blue-collar residents.

Fort Myers was one of the first forts built along the Caloosahatchee River as a base of operations against the Seminole Indians. Fort Denaud, Fort Thompson, and Fort Dulany (Punta Rassa) all pre-date Fort Myers. When a hurricane destroyed Fort Dulany in October 1841, the military was forced to look for a site less exposed to storms from the Gulf of Mexico. As a result of the search, Fort Harvie was built on the grounds that now comprise downtown Fort Myers. Renewed war against the Seminoles in 1850 caused a re-occupation and extensive reconstruction of Fort Harvie.

Fort Harvie began in 1850 as a military fort in response to Seminole Indians who were in conflict with the area's settlers. It was renamed in 1850 for Col. Abraham C. Myers,[6] who was stationed in Florida for seven years and was the son-in-law of the fort's founder and commander. In 1858, after years of elusive battle, Chief Billy Bowlegs and his warriors were persuaded to surrender and move west, and the fort was abandoned. Billy Creek, which flows into the Caloosahatchee River and runs between Dean Park and Fort Myers Broadcasting, was named after a temporary camp where Billy Bowlegs and his men awaited ships to take them west.

When the amusement park first opened in 1888, steamboats shuttled patrons from nearby Buffalo, New York to and from the park. At its peak in the 1940s and early 1950s, the park had about 20,000 visitors daily throughout the summer, from Memorial Day through Labour Day. Boat service connected the city with the park until 1956. The main passenger vessels used for these journeys were called the Canadiana and the Americana, each of which could carry 3,000 passengers per trip. The Ontario Southern Railway also provided a short-lived connection between the park and the mainline rail station at Ridgeway. This service consisted of a unique elevated monorail style train, and ran for only three summers from 1896 through 1898.

The park was famous for the Crystal Beach Cyclone, which was built in 1927. The Cyclone was an intense roller coaster with a full-time nurse on-hand to revive passengers who had passed out during the ride. In 1946, high operating costs forced the Cyclone to close. Many of the materials from the Cyclone were reused in the construction of the Comet. The park also contained the Backety-Back Scenic Railway, which was an early shuttle roller coaster.

Following the park's closing in 1989, the Comet was moved to The Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom in Queensbury, New York where it still operates today. A roller coaster known as the Silver Comet has been built at Martin's F

South Buffalo is a neighborhood that makes up the southern third of the City of Buffalo, New York, USA. Traditionally known for its large Irish-American community, this community also has a strong presence of various other nationalities.

In 1922, the second largest steel company in the United States, Bethlehem Steel, purchased the Lackawanna Steel Company for a mere $60 million. At this time, the Lackawanna plant was just over twenty years old and was beginning to show its age. Bethlehem Steel spent over $40 million in repairs and updates to the plant so that it could remain a large competitor in the steelmaking industry.

By 1941 and at the start of World War II, Bethlehem focused its operations to production of steel plate for ships and tanks, as well as structural steel for the military. During World War II Bethlehem’s Lackawanna plant became the world’s largest steelmaking operation employing over 20,000 workers on its 1,300 acre site. The Lackawanna plant’s prosperity lasted well into the early 1970’s.

In 1977, the Lackawanna Plant began to make cuts in its production and workforce due to decreased demand for steel and the sudden onset of steel imports from foreign markets. Despite company complaints with regard to declining profits, Bethlehem’s Lackawanna Plant was profitable every year from 1970-1981, with the exception of 1977. Bethelehem Steel closed most of its Lackawanna plant by 1983 due to rising operational costs and the decreased demand for steel. Located on the shores of Lake Erie, the Bethlehem Steel Lackawanna Plant was once considered the 4th largest steel mill in the world.

"He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. "