Such a sweet family

Freshly made Helzer taffy. Taffy making is a tradition that’s been in Tim Helzer’s family for more than 100 years, and he and his wife recently gave Port Aransas a taste of it.

Tim and Karen, Peculiar, Mo., residents in Port Aransas for the winter, made taffy at a city-sponsored show-and-tell event where folks could demonstrate and talk about their favorite hobbies.

It’s not saltwater taffy, but a type in which the finished product doesn’t stretch and actually is a bit on the hard side, with a subtle sweetness. Not much of that kind can be found anymore, Tim said.

“I love their candy,” said Peggy Srader, a Port Aransas resident who, with her husband, Dave, once lived near the Helzers in Missouri. “It’s sucking taffy, not soft, like the kind they sell in gift shops. You suck it, and it lasts a lot longer, really. They’ve got a whole lot of different flavors.”

STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Those flavors include chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, butter rum, root beer, black walnut and a strawberry-raspberry mixture that the Helzers call razzle dazzle.

It all started with Tim’s grandfather, Conrad J. “Cooney” Helzer, in the early 1900s.

Helzer was a Nebraska farmer and horse-drawn ice wagon delivery man who decided to try his hand at a new business when the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis rolled around.

He made “popcorn bricks” – like popcorn balls, but shaped like bricks, and he sold them at the World’s Fair.

“He had leftover syrup, and the mixture he used to make (popcorn bricks) evolved into the taffy,” Tim said.

Helzer established a business called Helzer’s Quick Lunch, and he made taffy as a part of it.

“The story is, he traveled with circuses and carnivals for about 40 years, making hamburgers and hotdogs and taffy,” Tim said.

Above: Helzer’s Quick Lunch, a mobile eatery, stands in a Nebraska town in September 1956. Bob Helzer is at right, wearing a white hat. Right: Karen and Tim Helzer make taffy at the Port Aransas Community Center Feb. 16. At left: Tim cooks taffy in a copper kettle that’s been in his family for more than 100 years. COURTESY PHOTO After fighting in World War II, Helzer’s son, Bob Helzer, took over the traveling lunch stand business. He operated it for about eight years before closing shop, partly because he was unwilling to change the way he did business to conform to government regulations.

Regulators required that Bob follow health department rules including use of stainless steel kitchen implements. And, instead of parceling out his candy by eye, he also was going to have to obey and weights-and-measures rules that would ensure that every customer was getting exactly the amount of candy for which he paid.

STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER “He just didn’t think it was worth it,” Tim said. “And I don’t think he wanted to travel anyway, because I was born about that time.”

Tim was the first baby in the family. Bob decided to settle down and stay in one place.

Even though Bob closed the business 60 years ago, taffy making has remained a cherished Helzer family activity ever since.

Sharing Cooney Helzer’s original recipe, relatives have enjoyed making taffy during the holidays each year. It’s a family activity that brings everyone together in a common task.

During the 1950s and ‘60s, Bob Helzer made the candy at home in Sutton, Neb., and continued when he and his family moved to Holts Summit, Mo., giving it away to friends at Christmas.

“Everyone in the neighborhood looked forward to it every year,” Tim said.

Family members have held onto the same big copper kettles that Cooney Helzer used to make his taffy 100 years ago. The Helzers also use a kind of candy wrapper that is similar to the kind that Cooney used, a material called glass waxine paper. The Helzers today can’t find any of the paper except through an outlet in Boston. The family buys it in bulk from the business.

Tim is a retired rural water district superintendent. Karen is a retired school teacher. Before Karen retired, she and Tim made taffy at sixth grade family fun nights held each year for about 10 years at the school where Karen worked in the Raymore- Peculiar School District in Missouri. The events attracted 200 to 300 people at a time.

Starting about 27 years ago, Tim’s aunt, Katy Traudt ( Cooney Helzer’s daughter), and her children started making taffy at Old Trusty Days, a local history-themed event held annually in Clay Center, Neb. Event organizers asked them to do it because they considered the taffy to be an important part of local history.

Traudt made the taffy at the festival for about 14 years, and after she stopped, Tim, a couple of his brothers and Karen took over.

Karen said it’s been especially gratifying to hear from customers who said the taffy brought back good memories from their childhood.

“People would say they remembered nights when the lights would go out at night, and momma would get out the taffy for the kids, and everything would be alright,” Karen said. “That’s why we have kept doing it, to hear those kinds of stories.”