I got this recipe from a lady who is now in her 90s and still going strong. She said this recipe came from the 1920s sometime and was used in my neck of the woods, out Barkerville way (a gold rush town from the 1890s that has been made into a tourist trap) because there were so many Chinese that came up to make there fortune, it ended up being called Chinese chews, but she swears that the name is date chewsticks. * note: no margarine or shortening!!!!