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Remembering the town of
Bloomfield and it's rich and varied history
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A brief history and my favorite memory of
Bloomfield, New Jersey |
The Township of Bloomfield has always held a fascinating history. A beautiful township
with an overwhelmingly working class population, Bloomfield was originally part
of Newark, as far back as the 1600s. When it finally became a separate town in 1812,
it included what are now the towns of Belleville, Montclair, Woodside, Franklin
and Glen Ridge, each of which struck out on their own over the course of the 17th
century.
By World War II, the town’s industrial plants were at the forefront of war production.
Bloomfield’s residents were employed by companies such as General Electric, Lehn
and Fink, Schering Plough, Scientific Glass, Westinghouse and, my favorite place,
The Charms Candy Factory. Imagine what it was like as a child to have your grammar
school (Carteret Elementary named after Sir George Carteret a well known land proprietor
of New Jersey) just down the block from this candy haven! I’ll always remember when
my second grade teacher took us on a class trip to witness how they made that wonderful
candy! It was for me kind of a pre-Willy Wonka adventure. FASCINATING!
There is a particularly interesting tidbit of information that I came across on
Charms. I just happened to save an article from the Newark Star Ledger that mentions
the passing in December of 1997 of a man by the name of Vincent Ciccone, head of
The Charms Candy Factory in Bloomfield. His story is an inspiring one; he started
out as a janitor at Charms and worked his way up to President and Chief Executive
Officer. Along the way, he contributed to the development of mass production techniques
for penicillin and secured more than twenty patents for manufacturing processes
— including a method for combining medicines with hard candies that is now widely
used in the making of throat lozenges. He also made millions of kids happy by inventing
“Charms Blow Pops”, lollipops with a gum center. Mr. Ciccone retired soon after
Tootsie Roll Industries acquired the Charms Company in 1988. I believe that the
plant in Bloomfield moved out of the area by the latter part of the 1970s.
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