I have to admit Hershey was a disappointment today. It started off on a bad note when I attempted to drive to the Hersheyland parking area. Traffic was backed up for blocks in all directions! The weather today was clear and sunny. Everyone must have wanted to get outside after all the rain from Hurricane Debby.
I changed my tactical plan for the day... instead of getting into the long line of traffic for parking at Hersheyland, I went downtown to start the day at the Hershey Story museum.
The museum told the personal story of Milton S. Hershey, the founder of the Hershey Chocolate company. He grew up in neighboring Lancaster, PA, and had several business failures before getting into the chocolate business. He was successful at making caramels, but had the foresight to see that chocolate had more of a future than caramels, so he sold the caramel part of his business and stuck with the chocolate.
Milton Hershey and his wife were very generous people. They had no children of their own, and started a school for orphan boys that is still going strong. Milton left his fortune to the school when he died.
Hershey was generous to his workers and wanted them to be happy and prosperous. He encouraged innovation. His employees invented many tools and processes to improve the business.
He believed in well rounded individuals, and provided social oppotunities and good recreational facilities for them. Although Hershey was a company town, he didn't exploit or oppress his workers like some other "company town" employers did. He encouraged his employees to buy their houses instead of renting, and helped arrange good financing.
An employee named Harry Reese started a peanut butter confectionary business, and Mr Hershey encouraged him even though it competed in the candy business. Reese experimented and started coating the peanut butter in Hershey's chocolate. It was a good partnership. and Hershey eventually bought Reese's business.
In addition to talking about Milton Hershey, the museum talked about the chocolate making process and business: picking the cocoa bean pods, fermenting the beans to deepen their flavor, crushing the beans to create cocoa nibs, adding fresh milk from local dairy farmers and other ingredients, blending all the ingredients, smoothing the product for several days on a conching machine, molding and packaging, and advertising.
The first photo below is of a cocoa bean pod. As the photo explains, there are typically about 40 cocoa beans in a pod. The cocoa beans are fermented and then crushed to produce the cocoa nibs shown in the second photo. The third photo is of the conch machine, which has a granite roller that rolls over the chocolate for several days to thoroughly mix and smooth it. I was surprised it had to be mixed and smoothed for that long!
The photos below are of chocolate bar molds and a Hershey kiss wrapping machine. Hershey kisses were originally hand-wrapped until they invented a machine to wrap them automatically.
I enjoyed the museum and came away with the feeling that Mr Hershey was a good employer and that he and his wife were really good people.
After finishing with the museum, I ate a large soft pretzel and headed back to the Hersheyland parking area. Unfortunately, there was still a long line to get into the parking lot! When I finally got to the front of the line, I was told the parking was full, and was handed a strip of paper telling me how to get to the overflow lot!! Why didn't they just put up a sign and redirect traffic instead of making us all wait in line??!! I felt sorry for all the people in the cars behind me!
The parking rates are ridiculously high... especially for people who are also paying to go to the Hersheyland amusement park! They should take a lesson from Mr Hershey and be a little more generous!
The overflow lot collected money up front at the gate. There was no way I was going to pay $60 to see the Chocolate World exhibit. I told the man collecting the money that I was only going to Chocolate World and not the amusement park. He said there was no charge to park for that and let me in without paying. The overflow lot was really full, too, but I eventually found a spot to park.
Chocolate World has a couple of large gift shops where you can get photos taken and buy candy and souvenirs. I sat in a moving cart for the free tour, bought a Reeses Chocolate milkshake (I had to buy something chocolate while I'm here, right?), and then was on my way. I didn't want to be around when all the cars started emptying from the parking lots!
My next stop for the day was Scranton, Pennsylvania -- the town where President Biden lived as a child, and the setting for "The Office" television series. On the way to Scranton, I passed the I-80 interchange. It would have been a direct shot home if I had taken the ramp and started the 2,700 or so mile drive back to Rocklin, California.
The Dunder-Mifflin paper company on "The Office" show is ficticious, but I did see a Mifflin Street and the Scotty's Seafood restaurant that is part of some episodes. Office fans will recognize the building below, which appears during the TV show's opening credits.
I drove around Scranton before finally settling down for the night in the Sam's Club parking lot. I was surprised how many hills Scranton has. I guess it shouldn't surprise me, because Pennsylvania is quite hilly. Some of the neighborhoods are on pretty steep streets, and the well-established houses have a similar look. They are large, sturdy, and have siding and large front porches. They also have a lot of front steps to clear on snowy winter days!
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