06/19/2026
These two gentlemen used to sell taffy in Estes Park—but not at The Taffy Shop.
At just 12 years old, Kyle remembers working for Fred Galloway a couple of doors west of our shop at a place called "The Candy Box". Kyle and his brother Kevin spent their summers working in town while their father worked seasonally for the National Park and taught school during the winters. Their dad put in an incredible 38 seasons as a seasonal employee. Longest seasonal ever?
The brothers recalled that Mr. Galloway made nearly everything in The Candy Box, and apparently every recipe was made with a generous helping of corn syrup. There was so much of it that they wore rubber aprons while working. One favorite memory still makes them laugh: one of them actually got stuck to the wall behind the candy machine thanks to all that sticky sweetness.
Well... almost everything was made there.
The Candy Box had a taffy-pulling machine right in the front window, and visitors were told the taffy was made on site. But enough years have passed that the truth can finally come out...
They didn’t actually make the taffy they sold!
They also reminisced about cleaning windows around town and being paid at the end of the summer by Mr. Haber at the Oriental Rug Shop.
And then there was The Dog House next to The Wheel Bar on East Elkhorn. They remembered the unmistakable trail of melted butter trailing down the sidewalk from all those hot ears of buttered corn.
At the Old Fashioned Candy Store, "Granny" let them eat as much candy as they wanted while they set old-fashioned type to print novelty headlines. As it turns out, they didn’t eat much candy at all. (The same thing happens with staff at The Taffy Shop!)
They also recalled Fred Galloway telling a story about inventing a candy bar, though the details have become a little fuzzy over time. Does anyone remember the rest of that story?
It was a delight to hear Kyle and Kevin share their memories and paint a picture of what life was like in the "good old days" of Estes Park.
Of course, today and tomorrow will be the good old days in a few years. Enjoy them while you're living in them!
Take a stroll through the history of our neighborhood at Historic West Elkhorn - there's a walking tour at www.westelkhorn.com
**Picture: Kyle and Kevin standing in front of the former location of The Candy Box, which was torn down earlier this year to make way for the carousel.
