Older Lancastrians remember the taste and smell of peanuts roasted at the Manhattan Peanut Stand on West King Street decades ago.

The Scribbler doesn't have to remember. He has a bag of freshly roasted peanuts on his desk. Or, more accurately, a few peanuts left in a bag.

These nuts, roasted last weekend on the old Voulopos-Vulopas family roaster, are delicious.

We'll get back to the roaster and the roasting. First, a little background for those who just walked in the door.

Last Friday the Scribbler profiled "Sam" Vulopas, the peanut man. He operated the Manhattan Peanut Stand at 51 W. King St. until 1980.

His brother, Stergos "Steve" Voulopos, previously ran that stand for four decades. His file at Lancaster Newspapers is not so thick as Sam's.

Now Steve's family weighs in on his contributions to downtown peanut sales.

"My dad was the first peanut man," says Lancastrian Paul Voulopos, Steve's son. "At first he worked six days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m."

Paul says his father opened the peanut stand in 1932 in the basement of the old Earle Hotel, which stood between the Army & Navy Store and Easy Credit Milt's, which became Jason's.

He also shined shoes in the shop, which was a popular place on weekends.

"There used to be three, four or five guys shining shoes on Saturday nights," recalls Paul. "I was one of them."

In 1940, the owner of the Earle demolished the building to create the current parking lot. Steve Voulopos persuaded the owner to build the little peanut stand at 51 W. King, in the corner of that lot.

He operated there for the next three decades.

Steve Voulopos died in 1971. His widow, Mary, and Paul Voulopos' wife, Kanella, ran the peanut shop for a time before Steve's brother, Sam, took over.

Many Lancastrians remember Sam, whose given name was Savas. He ran a dry-cleaning operation and peanut stand in Ephrata for 40 years before moving back to Lancaster to operate his brother's peanut stand.

Bob Rice recalls the soft pretzels Vulopas sold with his peanuts in Ephrata. The peanuts usually were hot; the pretzels were not.

David Heisterkamp says he liked the peanuts and chestnuts Vulopas sold in Lancaster, but he really liked his "one-cent fireballs that always seemed especially hot."

Both brothers used a coffee roaster to provide a distinctive flavor to their peanuts during the final years of the operation in Lancaster. Tim Voulopos, Paul's son and Steve's grandson, now owns the roaster.

"The roaster is approximately 100 years old," Tim says. "It is natural gas heated and has an electric motor to turn the drum."

The roaster propelled "the great smell of roasted peanuts onto King Street and enticed those walking by to come in and have some," says Tim.

Tim and his family roasted peanuts last weekend at their home in Roswell, Ga. They mailed a bag to Lancaster.

Did the Scribbler mention that these nuts are delicious?

"I don't think I have the roasting skills of my uncle and grandfather," Tim says, "but it's nice to know the roaster lives on."

This subject is not just peanuts to him.

"My uncle and grandfather were both pioneering immigrants trying to give their families a better life," he explains. "This peanut stand was a great foundation for our family."

The Scribbler welcomes comments and contributions at jbrubaker@lnpnews.com or 291-8781.