Remembering Judd’s: Then & Now

It was the type of scorching July heat that cooks your head if you don’t go swimming or wear a baseball cap. Thankfully, I had just clambered out of the Hellertown Pool’s shallow end and was standing patiently while my Dad dried me off with a towel that held the faint scents of sunblock and chlorine in its rough folds. My siblings and I, hungry from hours playing in the pool, were excited to get back to the stuffy family van and drive into town for snacks.

Though Dad hadn’t mentioned snacks, we knew they were inevitable. Trips to the Hellertown Pool were not complete without a post-swim candy run to Judd’s Superette and Luncheonette. Judd’s, which opened in 1957, was a family-run store located on Northampton Street. Newspapers, groceries, food and convenience items made the store an excellent one-stop shop for Hellertown residents to reach either by foot or by bicycle. Raymond Judd, the store’s founder, was known for his kindness and patience towards the children that frequented his shop. Judd was himself a native of Lower Saucon and spent 34 years of his life operating the superette that was a source of community life for all Hellertown residents. When Raymond Judd passed away in 1989, his daughter Nancy Rupert took over the superette and continued her father’s devotion to the community.

While Judd’s was famous for its delicious cheesesteaks and popsicles, it was the bags of penny candy that routinely drew crowds of schoolchildren to the store. Students would finish up their day of classes at the former Reinhard and St. Theresa’s schools before biking to Judd’s for an after-school treat, making it common to see a slew of bicycles parked outside the store during afternoons.

Like many residents who grew up in Hellertown, I always bought the same items from Judd’s. While other kids would purchase cigarettes for their moms, a pocketful of pistachios or a pack of baseball cards for trading, my weekend visits to Judd’s were for root beer barrels and gummy dolphins. Dad would use the dolphins to help me with my arithmetic, counting five of them into a plastic bag and asking me how many pennies I should put on the counter. The root beer barrels appealed to me because they tasted good, but my selection of the blue and white dolphins was motivated more by aesthetic. I would sit in the back of the family van as Dad drove us home, holding the gummy dolphins up to the window and watching the sunshine make them glow. To my young mind, Judd’s gummy dolphins seemed as though they’d leapt right out of the ocean and into my candy bag. My fancy for the dolphins did not, however, prevent me longing for the day I’d be old enough to buy a roll of Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape—the candy of choice for my two older brothers whom I admired.

Though Judd’s closed in the early 2000s and was eventually converted into apartments in 2012, the wonderful memories created by the Judd family remain in the consciousness of local residents. Gummy dolphins, root beer barrels and the Bubble Tape I’m finally old enough to chew will always taste and smell to me of Judd’s Superette and Luncheonette. I know my memories of the store are not unique. Raymond Judd and Nancy Rupert touched the lives of many individuals and their store will always be cherished.