My grandfather, William Haley, was born in Clinton County in 1876 when Ulysses S. Grant was President of the United States.

It was in March of the same year Alexander Graham Bell received the patent on the telephone. Wyatt Earp was deputized as a deputy United States Marshal in Dodge City, Kansas at about the same time. On June 25, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and 300 men of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment were wiped out at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. A few months later, Wild Bill Hickok was killed in a poker game in Deadwood, South Dakota.

Understandably, times were tough in those days. They were even tougher for a young man with a sweet tooth. Candy was a rarity for grandpa’s generation until Milton Hershey began selling the first milk chocolate bars made in America in 1900.

In 1904, William was 28 years old when he first visited a candy shop on South Ludlow Street in Dayton, Ohio. He walked past the bins of warm Planters nuts, past the ice cream, and came face-to-face with the “good friend” that would enter his life and the lives of his descendants for many years to come.

The object of his sweet affections was Brach’s Maple Nut Goodies candy.

Maple Nut Goodies were new and had the mystery of the young. The small sign above the bulk case said, “These goodies feature roasted peanuts nestled in crunchy toffee. But it’s the real maple coating that’s the star.”

My father, Bob, had a similar introduction to Nut Goodies. On Friday, May 22, 1935, the G. C. Murphy Company opened a new store in Wilmington. Dad was pleased to find a long bin of bulk candy of all types. The chocolate, caramels, and taffy all had their appeal; but he was beckoned by his favorite.

His eyes lit up as he spied them about two bins down from the candy corn. “Ma’am, I would like one-half pound of Nut Goodies,” he said to the pleasant woman behind the candy counter. That white bag of candy sealed a loyal friendship.

The years quickly passed and the Robert Haley family began to grow. Soon, I was born in the little white frame house in Port William.

It would be stretch to say buying candy was a form of “coming of age” for a young boy, but I remember the snowy Christmas Eve, 1952, when my dad and I walked into the G.C. Murphy Company in Washington Court House. My dad and I walked up to the counter and soon returned with the little white bag filled to the brim with our favorite Nut Goodies.

More than twenty years later when our son Greg was a toddler, we introduced him to the sweet maple nuggets. Greg soon loved the candy as much as his father, grandfather, and his great-grandfather before him did.

The high school days rolled by, and soon the college years began for Greg. It was always a pleasure to place a bag of Nut Goodies hidden in the bottom of the “care package” we sent him from home.

Greg became a man and his fondness for Nut Goodies continued. Ten years ago, his son Jack was born. Soon after he began grade school, I brought him a bag of Nut Goodies. Still today they are one of his favorite treats.

Times were good. Then, about two weeks ago, I received a text message from Greg. “Dad, have you had a bag of Nut Goodies lately?” he asked.

“It has been a month or so, why?” I replied.

“They have really changed,” he said. “The inside and outside are different. They are not soft at all in the inside, and it’s hard to describe the coating. Greg’s wife, Kristen, found out Brach’s sold to the Ferrara Candy Company, and the candy is now made in Mexico.

Thinking Greg might have just come across a bad batch of candy, last week I decided to buy a bag of Nut Goodies while we were in Cleveland. He was right. The maple nuggets tasted like wax.

Greg and I contacted the company to inquire about our beloved Nut Goodies. We received a form letter from the new company that bought Brach’s that said they had slightly altered the recipe, but hoped we would remain faithful customers.

Unfortunately, the recipe was more than slightly altered. It is obvious they are using more fillers, lower-quality ingredients, and eliminated the nuts.

It is only candy, one might argue, but the tiny maple nugget has been good to us and a dependable tradition in our family for 112 years.

It is in times like these that we must turn to the poet Kojouri and cling to, or paraphrase his words, “In the very end, all we have left to atone for our loss are words.” And sometimes words fail us.

Goodbye, old friend. May the force be with you.

Pat Haley is a Clinton County Commissioner.