Sugar Sugar

Sugar has been a mainstay of the world's diet since Indian farmers discovered how to refine sugar cane into granules.

The West Indies were famous for their sugar plantations and ships sailed north to deliver raw sugar to New York harbor and Domino Sugar.

The Domino Sugar factory has dominated the Brooklyn waterfront since the 1850s. The site once refined half the sugar consumed in the United States under the ownership of the Havermeyer family. The factory stopped production in 2004 after a protracted labor strike and the main building was granted a Landmark designation in 2010.

Plans for development were thwarted by the Greater Recesssion, however the recent real estate boom in Williamsburg has revived the project under the new mayor, who insisted that the developers build more affordable housing in return for rezoning the height restriction to 55-storeys.

This past weekend I biked by the abandoned Domino factory. Demolition work on the site hasd razed several outer buildings. Rumors abound that the interior of the century-old structure was held together by a thick coating of sugar residue honeycombed by the tunnels of giant cockroaches.

"It would cost them $6,000,000 just to jackhammer away that sugar coating," my cousin Tem said passing the factory. "And another $4 million to cart away the cockroaches."

"It's a billion dollar project."

"Then I guess the cockroaches are doomed."

"No, they will outlive us all."

"But not the Domino Sugar factory."

"It will soon be a thing of the past."

"Just like the Archies song 'Sugar Sugar'." Tem had been a DJ. He had a DJ's tastes in music

I groaned, because I hadn't thought about that bubble gum hit for decades.

"Thanks for the ear worm."

And I've been been humming Ron Dante's 'honey honey' ever since.

Like all things great or simple, some things aren't easy to forget.

To hear SUGAR SUGAR by the Archies, please go to this URL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g47K7V7Ub6w

ps SUGAR SUGAR was the # 1 hit of 1969.

And let's not forget Bob Marley's version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOvQylbaBY0