My Town Monday: Lititz, PA

As many of you know, I was recently in Hershey, PA, speaking at the Pennsylvania School Librarians' annual conference. I loved what I saw of Pennsylvania (thank you, Author Misty Simon, for toting me around!) and thought my trip might make for a few interesting My Town Monday posts.

Lititz, Lancaster County, PA was settled in the 1720s by Pennsylvania Germans. Today, Lititz has a population of around 9,000 and is located about 2,661 miles northeast of San Diego.

Guess what happened in Lititz, PA in 1861?

The first commercial pretzel bakery was built!



A man named Julius Sturgis had been running a bakery for about 11 years. One day, a hobo knocked on his door, asking for a job. Mr. Sturgis didn't have any positions open, but offered the man a meal. (I can totally see this happening. I found Pennsylvanians to be incredibly friendly.) In return, the hobo gave Mr. Sturgis a pretzel recipe. Mr. Sturgis quit baking bread and started the first commercial pretzel bakery in the US.

Of course, you never know how much truth there is in these stories. But they're fun to pass along, nonethless. And, in this case, tasty.

The Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery is still family owned and running today. You can take a tour. You can take a pretzel twisting lesson. You can also order online. The Sturgis family is hosting a 150 birthday anniversary for the pretzel bakery on July 30.

Click here for links to more My Town Monday posts! It's always fun to see what's going on in other corners of the world.

And if you're in a clicky mood, come see me at the Get Lost in a Story blog. There's a book and a t-shirt giveaway. All to start celebrating TOMORROW'S RELEASE OF I SO DON'T DO FAMOUS!!! (Yes, that was me screaming!)



sources:
http://www.snydersofhanover.com/History/HistoryofPretzels/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lititz,_Pennsylvania
http://www.juliussturgis.com/