Author of Ed Engoron’s Choclatique, Running Press, 2011
In 1926, Paul Helms of New York took an early retirement and moved his family to Southern California and its mild climate. Helms started construction on a building between Washington and Venice Boulevards in 1930 and, 
on March 2, 1931, the Helms Bakery opened with 32 employees and 11 specially-designed delivery coaches (trucks). By the next year, the Helms Bakery had become the “official baker” of the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics when Paul Helms won a contract to supply bread for the 1932 games. Early Helms vehicles sported the Olympic symbol, and it also appeared on Helms bread wrappers.
Despite having never been sold in stores, Helms baked products soon became known to millions of consumers. The Helms motto was “Daily at Your Door” and every weekday morning, from both the Culver City facility and a second Helms Bakery site in Montebello, dozens of Helms panel trucks, painted in a unique two-tone yellow and blue scheme, would leave the bakery for the greater Los Angeles Basin, some going as far as 60 miles to the eastern San Gabriel Valley. This is remarkable because the network of freeways had not yet been built, so the trip would take an hour or more. 
Each truck would travel through its assigned neighborhoods, with the driver periodically pulling (twice) on a large handle which sounded a distinctive whistle, or stop at a house where a Helms sign was displayed. Customers would come out and wave the truck down, or sometimes chase the trucks on adjacent streets. Wooden drawers in the back of the truck were stocked with fresh donuts, cookies, pastries and candies, while the center section of the truck carried dozens of loaves of freshly-baked bread. Products often reached the buyers still warm from the oven.
I specifically remember climbing up into the cab and with extra wide-eyes watching the Helms man pull out the drawers marked fresh doughnut and brownies. All of Helms’ products had a distinctive taste, but the brownies were something of a comfort food that I can still taste and smell in my memory. They were a chewy, fudgy brownie loaded with black walnuts and iced with a rich type of butter cream frosting.
As more women entered the workplace, the freeways got more crowded and the bakery’s driver’s union wages became prohibitive. Alas, in 1969 the last Helms truck left the depot and the final whistle was blown as the company’s doors were closed for the last time.
Some of these fond memories were brought back when I was having a nostalgic conversation with one of my clients last week. She told me that her dad loved Helms’ brownies as much as I did and asked if perchance I happened to have a copy of the original recipe. As luck would have it, I did. You can find the Original Helms Bakery Brownies in our recipe section along with the Chocolate Butter Cream Icing. Now I feel like singing a couple of choruses of Memories.
Are you stumped for just the right words to put on you sweeties card? Well here’s the perfect glossary where you can Borrow-a-Quote for the day. We promise we won’t tell.
Valentine’s Day is the annual celebration of love and affection. The day is named after Saint Valentine and was established in 500 A.D. by Pope Gelasius. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their desire for each other by presenting flowers, offering candy and sending cards. The holiday first became associated with romantic love in the Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.
This year nearly 190 million Valentine’s cards will be sent with half given to family members other than husbands or wives—usually to children. When you include the Valentine’s card exchange in schools the figure goes up to just over 1 billion—teachers receiving the most Valentine’s remembrances.
Valentine’s Day has undergone a transformation from a quiet, unassuming observance to a more commercialized affair. The rise of Internet popularity at the turn of this millennium has created new traditions. Millions of people now use digital means of creating and sending Valentine’s Day greetings such as e-cards and love coupons. Last year over 15 million e-Valentines were sent.
As with everything else in this world today, there are different takes on the way people celebrate this day—some with pomp and gaiety whereas others keep it a private affair. There is an age and stage for these celebrations, but true lovers never lose their passionate, yet innocent, approach to love and life.
