Growing up, I remember countless visits to the family business " Pace's." I used to go with my mom for whatever reason. I loved to go and sit in the back and watch my Grandpa make the ever famous Astro's. I have never been a fan of this popsicle, but I loved to watch the process. I would count all of the 10lb bags of sugar that were stored back there and sit on one while I watched. My Grandpa would pick up a bag of sugar and dump an amount in and then taste and repeat until he had just the right amount.
The molds would be filled and put into two huge tanks and frozen to make popsicles. When the popsicles were done they would pull them out and bag them by hand with a contraption my Grandpa had made. It was a blow dryer and metal welded together. Grandpa would turn on the blowdryer and it would make the bag open and then you could drop in the popsicle.
I remember running through the trees at my Great Grandpa's next door before they added on the side addition. Playing all sorts of games in there with my siblings and cousins. I loved all that there was to do there as a child.
I loved the cat that lived there and adopted us as a family. It would sleep in the old ice cream trucks and Grandpa would feed it raw meat patties and buy food especially for it. It was white and fluffy, I can't remember what we called it, but I was devastated when a customer ran him over.
I loved to go over and see my Great Grandpa's hunting dogs that he had for hunting mountain lions.
I can't believe how much can change so fast. I am so grateful for the carefree childhood I was given. I have so many good memories.