I remember our school selling pretzels daily by the wracks. You had better keep a nickle handy because that was what one pretzel went for back then, and it was one heck of a soft pretzel. Thy looked like the number 8. I've had some great pretzels from time to time but nothing like in that school. I never bothered to find out where they came from but one good guess is that they may have come from Philly down the road. DC area to Philly is maybe a two hour drive or less. Man were they good. I found this web site, don't know if they have been around that long but I bet Philly has been noted for their soft pretzels for a long time. Philly Soft Pretzel Factory