Name/Title
Off All ThingDescription
Of All Things from the Laguna Hills News-Post April 15, 1970
OF ALL THINGS
True Grit In A Small Town Merchant
By BILL PURCELL
This little story is about a genial guy named Al Guth.
Don't search your memory. You don't know Al. You won't find his name in Who's Who. Time magazine never ran a cover story on him.
Yet he is important because-in at least one respect-Al Guth represents what America is all about.
He is the prototype of Yankee "do" -a shining example of how a fellow with solid principles and the will to work hard can start with nothing and build it into something worthwhile.
Fifty years ago, when he was very young, Al opened a little ice cream parlor and candy store on Main Street in my home town, Waupun, WI. It's still there. So is Al.
Al looked more like a linebacker than an ice cream merchant. Tremendous shoulders. Flat stomach. West point back. Arms as sturdy as a pair of young oak trees.
A young man in a hurry, Al never walked. He loped, and with the grace of a jungle cat. Even when winter held the town in a bitter-cold icy fist, A1 worked with his sleeves rolled up to his shoulders.
He needed his strength. Most of his days were 18 hours long. He not only made every lick of ice cream he sold, he ground, by hand, the ice he froze it with. When he wasn't wrestling with the ice cream tubs and waiting on customers, he was in the back room making candy. His products were first class, and he dispensed them with a smile as big as his hea rt.
Eventually, Al's became the in place for the whole town. You took your date to the movies and then to Al's for a sundae or a soda. The older folks dropped in to soothe the throat after a dusty automobile ride.
The store was a posh place of marble counters, wall mirrors, gay school pennants. The tiny tables had those typical wire-back chairs. Elegant floor lamps with long fringes lighted the center aisle. Tantalizing candy smells drifted out from the kitchen. On the front counter, a huge bowl was kept filled with salted peanuts. You could scoop up a handful (or two) on the way in, and again, of course, on the way out.
For years, Al's helpmate was his pretty wife. Mary died six years ago.
A brother, "Jockey" Guth, was a prominent state Democrat. In 1960 Jockey put Waupun in the national spotlight when he threw a party in his apartment for Sen. Jack Kennedy and Jackie when the senator was picking up Wisconsin votes in his campaign against Richard Nixon.
Gradually, AI's fascination with candy-making relegated ice cream to the background. Now the business is all candy. Volume had zoomed.
From a tiny kitchen on Main Street, the business has expanded in three phases -retail, whole sale, and, fund raising. Guth's Candies are known in 16 of the 48 mainland states.
One of Al's two sons, John, has picked up the torch Al lighted half a century ago. Dad looks in often to lend a hand and counsel.
June Kelly, feature writer for the Waupun paper, did an excellent piece on the saga of A1 Guth. She called it "a sweet business."
More than that, it is the sweet story or small-business success that is the strength of America. It is not unique. It is typical. It has been done right here in Laguna hundreds of times. Such businesses are the bone and blood and sinew of America.
Let's hope we can keep it that way.
LAGUNA HILLS NEWS-POST Wednesday, April 15, 1970
307 FOREST AVENUE, LAGUNA BEACH, CALIF. 92651 Phone 494-1141Acquisition
Accession
2008.0500Source or Donor
Clipped and found in museum newspaper clippings and information.Acquisition Method
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