I often reminisce about the good old days when dead bugs, boogers and finger flavor were the only food additives we needed to worry about.
And a little grease and 90-weight oil.
Welch Foods, when it was independent (1970s) was headquartered in Westfield, NY. The grapes there are perfect quality for jams - and for cheap wine, like Mogen-David (MD 20/20). So, a century earlier, Dr. T.B. Welch came there from his native New Jersey, and set up shop.
They made jams and preserves in impressive quantities. Off the highway, they had four, or six, silos with WELCH'S on the side.
Late 1970s, at work, we had some contractor come in who was skilled in heavy electrical machinery repair. Couple of guys - they'd have lunch in our break room.
They talked of a time when they had a repair at the Welch plant. I guess what brought it up, was when one young guy with our crew, covered with grease, fastidiously washed his hands before eating.
Anyway...those silos had giant mixer blades going through them, like cream whips, with motors on top of the silo. Seems a transmission on one motor seized, and they were called in to repair it.
They started carefully laying out plastic to catch the gearcase slop as they opened it up, but a Welch foreman just pushed it aside. "Just let it fall in," he said. "It'll dilute."
That was just a few years after Welch Foods had that big push to children, on Saturday morning cartoons. THAT was what they thought of their products and the people eating it.
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