As we approach Easter, UC#3 reflects on some secular aspects of the celebration.
A young child searched the house for a hidden Easter egg
She crawled under furniture looking around the couch leg
But what she found was a chocolate bunny and a Peep
So she declared the Easter Bunny was cheep
But then thoroughly enjoyed her sugar while her parents tapped a keg
- UC#3
A Little Background
Peeps are a marshmallow confection marketed since 1953 in the United States and Canada in the shape of chicks, bunnies, and other animals as well as holiday shapes produced by Pennsylvania-headquartered Just Born Quality Confections.
Originally promoted primarily at Easter, Peeps have subsequently been marketed as “Always in Season”, and have expanded to Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Since 2014 the confection has been available year-round with the introduction of Peeps Minis.
Peeps ingredients include sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, food dyes and salt.
Peeps are produced by Just Born, a candy manufacturer founded in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, by an immigrant from Vinnitsa in the Russian Empire (now in Ukraine), Sam Born (1891–1959).
In 1953, Just Born acquired the Rodda Candy Company and its marshmallow chick line. Sam’s son, Bob Born, replaced the painstaking process of hand-forming the chicks with mass production in 1954. When founder Sam Born displayed a sign for his freshly made candy, he titled it “Just Born”, playing off of his last name and the fact that he made his candy fresh daily.
Visiting the factory where Peeps are made, in Bethlehem, Pa., is a true Willy Wonka experience. The building is crammed with pipes full of marshmallow and hoses full of sugar. Spray guns spray food coloring and flavors.
WLBOTT Wonders: When was Bob Born Born? September 29, 1924.
Bob Born (Ira Brahm Born)
Early life and education
Born was born on September 29, 1924, to Sam Born and Ann Shaffer, a Jewish family living in Brooklyn. His father was from Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. In 1932, the family moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where their candy factory was located. He graduated from Lehigh University in 1944 with a degree in Engineering Physics. During World War II, he served on a destroyer in the United States Navy. After the war, he studied graduate level math and physics at the University of Arizona and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was accepted into medical school, but did not start classes, instead started work in his father’s company.
As bemused as he was by the success of his most famous confection, Mr. Born always made time to celebrate it, including as a frequent judge at diorama contests.
“I get a big charge out of seeing them every year,” he told The South Florida Sun Sentinel in 2015, while visiting a competition in Lake Worth, Fla. “Did I have any idea Peeps could become art? That’s a question for a philosopher, not for me.”
Oh Bobby Born, the peeps, the peeps are calling From Bethlehem (PA) and round the countryside, Christmas is gone, and Easter orders flowing For peeps it’s true, they sure do fly and fly.
But come ye back, make birds out of marsh mallow but come ye back, the sugar’s crushed, and white as snow machines are hot, to make peeps pink or yellow Oh Bobby Born, oh Bobby Born the peeps must flow!
Rick Gage / Mt. Dora / Feb. 6, 2023
Rest In Peeps, Bob.
John Harrington / Utah /Feb. 6, 2023
Here’s our Peeps story that I have to believe will resonate with some parents anyway:
When our older daughter was three and she was already getting into things she was not supposed to be getting into, she found the Easter candy stash the day before Easter.
Of course, in there were packages of Peeps, along with chocolate bunnies. Well, it was still pretty cold outside in the mountains here and we had the heat on inside. She somehow smuggled Peeps and chocolate from our bedroom closet into her room – a short move in our single story farmhouse – and we didn’t see anything because Saturday morning on the ranch was pretty busy.
It was eerily quiet for a bit. Our son was in sight watching Saturday morning TV on the couch when my wife got curious as to where our suddenly quiet little girl was.
Then, I get this, “Hey, Hon, come in the kids’ room.”
I went in and there she was, sat by the warm heat register in the floor, her hair matted in melted, clumpy Peeps and her face covered in melted chocolate bunny. She had melted Peeps parts in her eyelashes. Her eyebrows. On her shirt. Sticky like glue.
We got the camera – no cellphones yet – and took pictures because, what else was there to do except laugh and spend a few hours getting melted Peeps out of her hair?
The 2024 Peeps Diorama Contest | Library Arts Center
The 13th Annual – New Hampshire’s Original Peeps Competition!
The Library Arts Center Gallery is hosting this fun, springtime tradition using the iconic Easter Candies: PEEPS! This annual favorite contest welcomes community members of all ages. Make an original shoebox-sized diorama with the iconic Easter candies—PEEPS!—as the main characters. Community members of all ages, businesses, school classrooms, groups & organizations are all encouraged to enter. Take cues from current events, pop culture, or clever “peeps” puns—just get creative!
About the Library Arts Center
The Library Arts Center is a creative gathering space where friends, family, neighbors and visitors can connect and share in a celebration of artistic inspiration, creative vision, and community spirit—in the true sense of “community arts.” Founded in 1967, the Library Arts Center is a non-profit arts center, gallery and studio located in the heart of downtown Newport, NH.
WLBOTT Diorama Concepts: Existential Angst – Twine, Peeps, and the Search for Meaning
Newport, New Hampshire
Let’s explore Newport for a bit. Newport NH is the home to the Peeps diorama contest.
[T]he Sugar River was recognized as central to industrial development, and in 1820, mill owners from Claremont, Sunapee and Newport united to create the Sunapee Dam Corporation, which built a dam to regulate the river’s flow, running mill machinery even during drought. This plan worked, and over 120 water wheels would turn along the stream’s course. By 1859, when the population was 2,020, Newport had three woolen mills and two tanneries.
WLBOTT Wonders: Newport, NH – Rhombus, Trapezoid, Parallelogram, or simply a Scalene Quadrilateral?
WLBOTT Peeps Costume Contest
The Sibley Scythe Company
[Newport] also had the Sibley Scythe Company, established in 1842, which manufactured the scythes that cleared jungle during construction of the Panama Canal. The company closed in 1929.
Newport Historical Society / Mill Town Messenger has a newsletter describing the history of the Sibley Scythe factory.
Here is the Sibley Scythe factory today. Trashing a Scythe Factory? Haven’t these kids seen a single horror movie?
Billy B. Van – Notable Newport Person
Agricultural career
A major The New York Times article in 1917 is the source of a picture of what might be called the two Vans: Billy B. Van, the New York audience knew as a performer, and William Vandegrift—his birth name—as an expert in dairy farming and other agricultural affairs. In fact, he is called one of the seven best-qualified authorities on dairy management. Since this is a story told to the reporter by Van, there is every possibility of exaggeration.
Due to supply chain problems and a tight labor market, WLBOTT has asked Thanatos to help out the Easter Bunny. Being a team player, [s]he took on the role with her/his usual gusto, bonhomie and obliging congeniality.
2 replies on “Peeps and Easter Supply Chain Issues”
I have to ask, how many children did Bob Born have before he stopped naming them and just called them “born again”?
John, if Mr. Born was reincarnated, then joined an evangelical Christian denomination, he would be: Born, born again and born again.
2 replies on “Peeps and Easter Supply Chain Issues”
I have to ask, how many children did Bob Born have before he stopped naming them and just called them “born again”?
John, if Mr. Born was reincarnated, then joined an evangelical Christian denomination, he would be: Born, born again and born again.