Passed Berks' Past #2 Mystery Cache
OReviewer: As there's been no cache to find for a long time or has had no owner response for at least 30 days, I'm archiving it to keep it from showing up in search lists, and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements.
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Tulpehocken Dairy
THE CACHE IS NOT AT THE POSTED LOCATION!
My wife and I grew up in the Berks County and have very fond memories of extinct sites around the county. This is the second in a series of traditional caches that might bring back fond memories of long gone sites around our county. Many of us have passed these locations from the past with little regard to the lost local commercial history.
When I moved to Whitfield in 1972, milk was still delivered to our house and left in the insulated box at the foot of our porch. I remember the box and the milk, but soon our family was going to the Tulpehocken Dairy store to get our milk and other basic food needs. The glass bottles were a unique rectangular shape and had plastic spouts that snapped onto the half gallon bottles. The store offered white milk, chocolate milk and an unknown “orange drink” that wasn’t the quality of Kool Aid, but rather colored water.
These were the days where skim, 2% and 1% milk were not available. My mother used to get mad if we took the first milk from the bottle as there was usually a half inch of cream on top. Today’s whole milk (yes, that’s what we still drink) is “thin” compared to dairy milk.
As I got older, the Tulpehocken Dairy became the place to ride one’s bike to for baseball cards, gum and the occasional candy bar, well, maybe more than the occasional candy bar. There was a house on the corner of the same property in which several ladies lived who worked at the store. As a child, I liked the idea that the cows were grazing in the field behind the store where we bought milk. There used to be entrances off State Hill Road and Van Reed Road to permit easy entrance/exiting.
My wife took flute lessons in the Will-O-Hill apartments, after which her father would get the weekly milk. Being a family who loved milk, they would buy five to six gallons of white and chocolate milk at a time. Many people had the wire cage carrier that held four half gallon bottles. My future father-in-law, a true do-it-yourselfer, made two wooden carriers that each held six half gallon bottles. He would load six gallons of milk into these dark turquoise crates and drive back to West Reading.
Then progress took over... The land could be sold to a developer for more than dairy products and farming would ever amount to over many years of hard work. The dairy’s demise was written. The house where the employees lived, the barn and store were razed. The intersection was widened (this change was good), a much needed traffic light added and a development was added. Much of the land was also sold to Penn State’s Berks’ campus and the Berkshire Mall. Another small store bites the dust.
This cache is placed in memory of the Tulpehocken Dairy. The posted coordinates are behind where the barns and store were located. The cache is located at an area that was once part of the Tulpehocken Dairy Farms. The puzzle below will get you to the correct coordinates. Please be aware of muggles as this is a high traffic area. This is a quick cache and dash.
Actual coordinates:
N 40 20.6923 + .ABCD
W 75 59.8677 - .ZYXW
A. Number of Waffle Houses in Berks County as of 2/21/09
B. Fourth digit in Tulpehocken Dairy’s zip code
C. Number of milk bottles my father-in-law could carry in a crate
D. Ears times stomachs
Z. Teats on a cow
Y. The Brady Bunch drank gallons of milk, how many people in the house
X. First digit in a half gallon's ounces
W. Number of California Pizza Kitchens in Berks County
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Tbbtyr vf hfrshy
Treasures
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