Chrysanthemum Block

I’d heard Sweetest Day is an artificial holiday, cooked up by candy makers to promote their industry. A bit of research turned up evidence that supports that claim. The first Sweetest Day was October 10, 1921 in Cleveland. A dozen Ohio confectioners chaired by C. C. Hartzell distributed more than 20,000 boxes of candy to people they thought needed a bit of a lift: orphans, the elderly, newsboys and the poor. In subsequent years the Sweetest Day Committee hired movie stars and other celebrities to bestow sweets and other small gifts. I’m not sure when greeting cards got into the act, but each year Hallmark and American Greetings produce hundreds of cards just for the third Saturday in October. I’ve never given or received a Sweetest Day gift or card, but that may be because it’s quite a regional thing involving mostly Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and of course Ohio.