Reliving the magic of Hess's

A big day is coming and I can hardly wait.

OnAug. 19, the Hess's Hamilton Mall Employee Reunion will take place at Emmaus Community Park.

Invitations were mailed out a few months ago and I've been looking forward to it.

The event reunites workers who staffed the flagship store at Ninth and Hamilton in Allentown. The former co-workers last met in 2015.

I was hired in Hess's advertising/public relations department in the 1970s.

It was a thrill to become part of Pennsylvania's largest in-house ad agency, an operation second in size only to those of New York City.

I spent several years learning the business, a great experience for a young kid from the coal regions.

If you shopped beneath those grand crystal chandeliers, you know how special Hess's of Allentown was. Fashion models. Strawberry pie. A touch of glamour.

It also was a place of mystery, a series of buildings five stories high, joined together to appear as one, with hidden halls and areas designated "Co-Worker Only."

Each day was a learning experience, right from the start. Hess's provided an ambitious employee orientation program, including instruction on what to wear and which colors and patterns matched best.

In my first few years, parking was an issue because I was still too new to have earned a spot on the Linden Street parking deck.

Instead, I parked many blocks away, actually near Tilghman Street, where there were no parking meters.

From there, I sometimes roller-skated to the store in warmer weather, always wearing a suit and tie.

My daily job was based in a workstation on the third floor, across from offices of execs Phil Berman and Irwin Greenberg.

There, artists, copywriters, layout staff and a production team worked in a maze of open cubicles. Photography and typesetting were housed in separate, larger rooms.

There were daily chores, but somehow nothing was ever routine.

I remember having a chance to meet special guests who visited, including Liberace and the Osmonds. Another day, I posed as Hess's version of Luke Skywalker for 1977 advertising of the popular force beam. The "Star Wars" movie had just been released and all things Skywalker were the craze.

I traveled on a few occasions to take part in grand openings when Hess's expanded to other cities. My role was to sit inside a mechanical robot. The machine could talk, move and travel, thanks to internal controls.

At Harrisburg East Mall, the robot's batteries went dead and I was stuck inside. A few men from mall security came to the rescue and pushed the behemoth into a rear stockroom. Once safely out of public view, I crawled out from the robot's secret panel.

My memories of Hess's go on and on.

It was unique in good ways, but I always thought the company's interpretation of corporate culture was unusual. Emphasis on co-worker friendliness went hand-in-hand with a very aggressive approach to store security. But I suppose tight security was necessary even back in the '70s.

Hess's was a memorable experience, both to shop there and to work there.

For many, the magic of Hess's was the lure of wonder at a place where you were never too old to have a happy childhood.

And that's always a good thing.