Former Wooster resident Susan Swinehart noticed a mention of Wooster Potato Chips in a recent column and wrote to say the small, local business had been operated by her grandparents, Frank and Zelma Swinehart, in a building at the rear of their home on Spruce Street.
"My parents and I would go to visit my grandparents on the weekends when I was very young and it was always a treat to go out the back door of the house and into the factory," said Swinehart — a Lacey, Washington, resident who currently works for the U.S. Army as a psychotherapist for soldiers.
The last time Swinehart was in Wooster was 25 years ago and she said she made a point of driving by the location of her grandparents’ house and factory. All she found was a parking lot.
"When my grandparents died," Swinehart explained, "the factory passed to my uncle and aunt, Wilf and Leona Lester, who were living in Michigan. Eventually their son Jack Lester took over. Yes, he was the mayor of Wooster and shortly after that the company was no more.
"That's a real shame as they were the best fresh out-of-the-fryer kettle chips I have ever tasted ... hand-packed by a few women sitting around a huge stainless steel bowl."
Multiple jobs
A recent mention of the Spiegel Catalog Store prompted John Vosteen to reminisce about his work-day-world back when he was a student at Wooster High School.
"I was a porter at the Montgomery Ward store on West Liberty where I learned the art of looking busy," said the 1954 WHS graduate. "I was a soda jerk at Frank Wells Drug Store where I developed a strong lifetime grip from scooping out ice cream for milk shakes and sundaes. I was a bellhop at the American Hotel where I learned the correlation of tips and survival.
"I did house sitting for Bill Gass — a professor at Wooster College — who was to later become the famous author, William H. Gass, and there I learned how not to overwater and kill houseplants. One Christmas season I played Santa Claus at Freedlanders.
"And last, but not least," he added, "I worked at Fisher Dry Cleaners on West Liberty where I was a spotter in the afternoon, but I would go in before school in the morning to light the steam boiler so the pressure would be up when Ginny Carafelli came in to begin her day as a presser.
"But one day I lit the match and the blowback threw me across the basement and bounced me off the opposing wall. But only my feelings were hurt so I picked myself up and went kitty-corner across the street to Nadelin's Restaurant for my coffee and doughnut breakfast."
Whoops!
A sentence in last week’s column should have read "Not long ago Don Bogner wrote that when he and John Horn were serving in the U.S. Army Reserves during the early ’70s, they’d take their Army fatigues to the Chinese Hand Laundry."
FYI
According to a 1933 Wooster High School souvenir football program, there were 338 students attending WHS in 1912 with 60 seniors graduating that year. By 1932, 807 students were enrolled and there were 128 graduates. Twelve teachers taught in 1912, but by 1932 the number of teachers had risen to 33.
Thought you should know.
Columnist Ann Gasbarre can be reached at agasbarre@gmail.com or 330-345-6419.
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Bits and Pieces: Wooster Potato Chips were 'the best' - Akron Beacon Journal
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