A sweet treat is good for the soul
Back in the spring of 2015, I walked into a new business, Daddy O’s Donuts, in Calhoun to interview the owner, Mike Johnson.
It was a little shop, but no matter. I felt like I’d walked into a small slice of heaven. The aroma was rich with promise, a mixture of chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, apple, peach and other things that beckoned my senses.
I swallowed and wanted to raid the platters of sweet treats displayed to tempt
customers with all manner of donuts and pastries. When I interviewed Mike, he explained that all the mouth-watering fare was made from scratch on the premises. Nothing was frozen.
You must understand that I am a pastry afficionado. In other words, I am a fool for a good cinnamon bun, French éclair, or donut. It all started when I lived with my Grandpa and Grandma Colligan in New York City. My father was on assignment overseas so my mom, sister, and I moved in with my mom’s mother and father in a large apartment on Staten Island.
On the first-floor lobby, a wonderful older Jewish couple owned a delicatessen that sold everything from marble rye bread to frozen custard, to pastries. As I recall, they were the sweetest people. When I first entered their place of business, I was overwhelmed by the warmth and aromas of all their goodies. Back then, a kid could safely go into a store like theirs and kind of hang out. I was around six or seven and after school my mom would let me go in and talk to this elderly couple.
They may not have been as elderly as I thought. Forty-year-old people were older to me. They’d share homemade bread fresh out of the oven with butter on it or a left over from the morning sweet roll. You’d think I would have been a chubby kid eating all that, but I was always a skinny little kid who sometimes looked like a street urchin with huge brown eyes. When we moved to Morocco, I learned to love the pastries and breads of the Arab culture. We lived in the French half of Morocco and French pastries were also offered.
We’d go to markets in the village where we lived and sample the foods my parents thought were safe. Sometimes, a vendor would give me something without Mom or Dad’s knowledge and I’d scarf it down. It was mainly made with fruits and different kinds of herbs and spices. I don’t remember anything tasting bad.
When we moved back to the States, Daddy was stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana near Shreveport. This area is in northern Louisiana, but even so, New Orleans and French cuisine were great influences of what people ate. I was not big on Cajun foods. It had too much heat. I’ve never liked foods that burned my mouth, but French pastries were a great offering. Beignets, a popular doughnut found in New Orleans was a favorite of mine. It is square and wonderful.
We moved once again to Salina, Kansas at Schilling Air Force Base (now closed) and soon learned of a marvelous little Swedish town called Lindsborg. A lot of the people there didn’t even speak English. I was fascinated by that in and of itself, but more than anything I loved the Swedish pastries, especially the doughnuts made with potato flour called Spudnuts. We’d make a special trip to the little shop that sold these jewels just about every Sunday. I haven’t had another Spudnut since and have wondered if the shop is still in business. Knoxville, Tennessee was where my dad settled us once he left the Air Force.
He began a second career with the Post Office. It was here we discovered a doughnut place that had a blinking light to let people know warm doughnuts were selling off the conveyor belt. Daddy used to pick me up from college and we’d buy a dozen still warm chocolate-covered doughnuts and drive all over Knoxville eating them.
But, I must confess that I have found the ultimate doughnut ever right here in Calhoun, Georgia … Daddy O’s. To me, no other doughnut is as good as these sweet treats. This business has flourished and has recently moved to a new location, 408 South Wall St.
I can’t eat doughnuts often, but the other day, I bit into my first chocolate covered doughnut from Daddy O’s in two years and I felt like doing backward flips in the parking lot. It was so light, airy, and delicious, I believe I made a whimpering sound.
Y’all, sweet treats are good for the soul. Truly.