Constanti Pietrak, or "Skip" as he's known, offers rare bites of sugary nostalgia in a candy shop where life is sweet.
"You have to have fun when you are in a candy store," Skip says. "The people expect to you to have fun."
In Skip's candy land, in his signature pinwheel hat, he's taking you back, way back.
All the hard-to-find oldies are there, including wax bottles, Abba-Zaba and Look bars, candy lips and wax fangs, Bonomo taffy, Razzles, Sky Bar, Uno bars, Scooter pies, and Blackjack gum.
"When they do become available I buy out as much as I can," Skip says. "Blackjack gum is only made every three years."
In his candy corner, Skip also whips up and dreams up more than fifty types of seasonal fudge.
"I already made pumpkin fudge, apple fudge, egg nog fudge," he says.
The homemade chocolates? Each one hand dipped.
But life wasn't always sweet for Skip.
"I was an officer in the Philadelphia Fire Department as a lieutenant," Skip says. "They carried me out of a fire and took me to the hospital. They thought they lost me."
Saved by sweets thirty years ago, Skip also has the full support of his family, and four generations all have a hand in making the place happy.
His 3-year-old grandson Coulton was the inspiration for Skip's Sugar Shack, a peanut and tree nut free facility across the street where all kids can just be kids in a candy store.
"We needed a place for him to have something that is safe," says Coulton's mom Kim Decker. "Anything in this building is safe. No peanuts or tree nuts are allowed in this facility."
Skip's Candy Corner
(215) 794-8087
www.skipscandycorner.com
Peddler's Village
Routes 202 & 263
Lahaska, Bucks County, PA
(215) 794-4000
