We got a fun little break from the coffee shop last Saturday afternoon. There is a guy here whom we all refer to as “chocolate Bob” because back in the day he owned a chocolate factory in Pana. He is from Arizona and moved to Pana 28 years ago when all that existed here were fields of onions. For all the youngsters……here is a cool fact. Does anyone remember those plasticy beads that were almost always peace signs, grateful dead skulls and bears, or other psychedelic neon patterns? They were usually black and for all the Bham kids….the Bead Chemist always had rows of them. Chocolate Bob is THE inventor of those beads. It’s a small world huh? After a trip to the United States, he returned to Pana only to discover that all his ideas and machinery had been stolen from his factory. Fast forward to now, he has moved on to making beautiful glass beads that he wholesales to the United States. He is a faithful customer of Michael’s, and so we have gotten to know him pretty well. He invited us over to his workroom to see how he makes them. We spent the afternoon watching him make a couple flawless beads, and then he let Brett and I give it a shot. Needless to say, ours turned out pretty ridiculous, but we had a lot of fun doing it.