“Sometimes life is just what it is, and the best you can hope for is ice cream.”
Right now it is 78° and cloudy. Tonight the low could get down to 68°. I look forward to feeling cool though I wonder if it is a prescience of fall or Mother Nature pranking us. Possible showers are also part of the weather report, but I don’t care one way or the other. Rain never stops me.
When I was a kid, only the movie theater had air conditioning. In our house, we didn’t even have a fan. Both inside doors were open to the screens as were the windows. The dark living room, shades down, was the coolest room in the house. Our screen doors were wooden. I can still remember my mother yelling, “Don’t slam the door,” but if you ran out the door, it just slammed itself. She wanted and maybe even expected my younger sisters would gently close the door. The poor woman had no idea. What kid stops to close the door?
Popsicles were my favorite treat to beat the heat. When Johnny, the ice cream man, came, everyone ran home to get money. Popsicles were only a nickel. All the other treats were a dime. I loved the root beer and cherry popsicles. If I had a dime, I’d buy a Drumstick. I still buy Drumsticks. If Johnny had no drumsticks, I’d buy a Push-Up. That was sherbet in a cardboard tube about the size of a toilet paper tube. It had a wooden push up stick on the bottom; hence, its name. My favorite was orange.
When we visited my grandparents in East Boston, we’d sometimes buy Italian ice, similar to a snow cone but tastier. It came in either a cardboard cup or a cardboard cone. Lemon was my favorite. I remember at the bottom of the cone was liquid, cold, tart lemon.
As for ice cream, I went on a mint chocolate chip frenzy a while back. I did the same with coffee chip. Now it is coconut to which I sometimes add a bit of hot fudge. It is ice cream Nirvana.
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July 21, 2023 at 3:02 pm
Hi Kat,
The wind has shifted to the north so we had a cold front pass through last night. The high today will only top out at 101°. There’s no official meteorological term for coolish front. 🙂
Sadly, this morning we lost Tony Bennett. He was 96 years old and was suffering from dementia. He was the last of the great singers of the classics from the American Song Book. RIP Tony, and be sure to stop off at the moon on your way to heaven.
I adore ice cream. I could eat it every day. In my freezer is a box of Snickers Ice Cream bars, and two boxes of Milky Way Ice Cream bars. I plan on enjoying them poolside this weekend.
When I was kid the ice cream truck would come down the street in NYC with bells ringing. I was especially found of the Good Humor brand. There was another brand called Bungalow Ice Cream. Their trucks looked like a small house on wheels. However, I was not too particular as long as chocolate was somehow involved. When I moved to Dallas they didn’t have Good Humor or Bungalow ice cream, but the trucks played music to announce their arrival instead of bells. They played nursery rhyme songs.
In high school I was a Good Humor man on a tricycle with a big icebox in the front. I had to pedal it three or four miles from the plant to the shopping area where I was assigned a location. I only did it for a few days because of the heavy peddling and I usually ate up my own profits. 🙂
Before I was married, I discovered, Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream. Especially their chocolate with chocolate chip flavor. Sometimes I would buy a pint and eat the entire thing instead of eating dinner. I’m amazed that if I accidentally cut myself, I don’t bleed, Ragu. 🙂 Fortunately, my cholesterol levels are very normal.
I do enjoy Italian Ice, but it’s very hard to find here in Texas. I’m not fond of popsicles. Where’s the fat!
July 21, 2023 at 9:54 pm
Hi Bob,
I shut my backdoor as it got summer chilly. I even put on a light long sleeve shirt. We have had horribly humid days so today was wonderful.
My mother introduced me to Tony Bennett. She love his voice. One time my mother, father and another couple went to a nightclub in Boston to see him. My mother and the other woman went to the bathroom. When she got back to the table, my father told her she had missed Tony Bennett. She was devastated but my father said maybe they could catch him. They ran to the front door where my father introduced her to a guy with no teeth who hadn’t showered in forever and was wearing a long, filthy coat. My father thought the whole thing was pretty funny.
I never buy Snickers Ice Cream bars or Milky Way Ice Cream bars as I’d devour them in no time. I do treat myself to two Snickers bar in a week. I got this week’s today. One is gone!
Johnny had a white truck with no markings. He sold Hood ice cream. He rang a bell.
The only time I saw an ice cream man on a bike was at the beach.
My favorite flavors change over time. I like popsicles as they are so cooling.
July 21, 2023 at 11:30 pm
So, did your mother missed the entire show, or just missed meeting Tony Bennet? I saw him in person many years ago at the Fairmont hotel in downtown Dallas. He displayed little personality, but sang many of his hits.
July 22, 2023 at 12:26 am
She saw the whole show, but she thought she was actually going to meet him. My father just introduced her to that old guy an called him Tony Bennett.