A Sweet Piece of History

April 26, 2018

If I say that you may not be able to get Necco wafers anymore, you may say, “Eh, no big deal. I’ve never heard of them.”

If I say that the company who makes those little Valentine’s Day hearts with sayings on them is going out of business, you might say, “Oh, that’s a shame!”

Those hearts are Necco wafers in heart form. Normally they’re just—round wafers.

Some other things I didn’t know Necco wafers until recently (Thank you, Daniel Neman of the Post-Dispatch):

Union soldiers carried Necco wafers in the Civil War. The U. S. government issued them to soldiers during WWII because they didn’t melt and didn’t break in transit. (The article didn’t mention anything about Necco wafers and WWI. Maybe the government thought that giving the soldiers hardtack left over from the Civil War was enough of a treat.)

Admiral Byrd brought 2-1/2 tons of them on his first expedition to the Arctic, and in 1913 explorer Donald MacMillan brought them with him to give to Inuit children. These wafers are woven into the fabric of American history, even if we didn’t know about them.

So, if you run across some Necco wafers before they go out of business, grab yourself a piece of history. Savor the moment.