“Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.”
Showers are predicted for today so the morning is a bit dark. There is a slight breeze ruffling the leaves on the oak trees. The dogs are having their naps. It’s a quiet morning.
My dance card is empty. I do have my usual weekly errands but not today. I figure it is time to do a bit of cleaning, mostly upstairs. I will never have a dog with white fur again.
When I was a kid, one of the best sounds of summer was the bell announcing the arrival of the ice cream man’s truck. Johnny was the ice cream man’s name. He used to stop at the top of the hill near the little rotary. Kids ran home from all directions yelling, “Johnny is here!” I mostly bought popsicles. My favorite was root beer followed closely by cherry. They were only a nickel. When I was really young, I wasn’t good at catching the drips. My hand and wrist had lines of red from the cherry, and my fingers got sticky. As I got older, I learned the popsicle technique. Licking from the bottom up was the key, and you had to be careful because sometimes the top part of the popsicle would fall off and hit the ground, a tragedy. It was the same with ice cream cones. As the ice cream melted it dripped down the cone. I remember my mother sometimes wrapped a napkin round the cone to catch the drips. It always got messy. Sometimes the bottom of the cone leaked. I think a sign of the end of childhood is eating an ice cream cone with no mess, no drips, no napkin.
I remember buying Push-Up ice cream. It was like an orange sherbet and came in what looked like a toilet paper roll with a stick in the bottom middle. That was the push-up part. They were a dime.
I still love ice cream. My current favorites are coconut and coffee chip. I eat ice cream out of a bowl now, and sometimes I add chocolate syrup or hot fudge to make a sort of sundae. Every now and then I still buy what my father, who worked for an ice cream company, used to call an ice cream novelty. I buy Drumsticks, sort of portable sundaes, sugar cones with vanilla sort of ice cream, chocolate shells and nuts. I don’t buy them often. They get eaten really fast.
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
May 30, 2024 at 3:22 pm
Hi Kat,
It’s either feast or famine. Last year we were in extreme draught the entire year. Every lake in Texas is a reservoir and all of them are man made. This year our reservoirs are over filled. Rain is in the forecast for every one of the next ten days. Right now it’s cloudy with only a high temperature predicted of 83° and a 65% chance of more rain.
I am an ice cream fanatic. I have loved the stuff from as far back as I can remember. Not only do I remember the sound of the bells on the ice cream trucks as a kid, but I worked as a Good Humor man on an ice cream tricycle. It had a freezer box on the front packed with dry ice and ice cream treats. I didn’t work there very long because I had to pedal that heavy contraption to and from the ice cream plant. That was about three miles each way. Also, I ate up a large percentage of my profits. My favorite Good Humor bar was and still is, “The Chocolate Eclair”.
When I was a kid in New York there were two brands of ice cream trucks that plied the neighborhoods, “Good Humor and Bungalow Bar”. When we moved to Dallas, the ice cream trucks didn’t have brand names nor bells, but they had a speaker that played nursery rhymes music.
Like you I love chocolate in any form, especially ice cream. When I was in my late 20s, I discovered Häagen-Dazs ice cream. I fell in love with their “Chocolate, Chocolate Chip”, flavor. I would buy a pint daily and eat the entire pint for dinner. I’m amazed that my total blood cholesterol level is still very low. 🙂 A major disappointment was that the brand was from New Jersey. Here at the office, we have free ice cream bars for our clients. I may head down to the freezer and enjoy one as a result of writing this post. 🙂
May 30, 2024 at 3:27 pm
I just saw an article in the on-line Dallas Morning News, that as of one this afternoon, 50% of the departures at DFW airport are delayed and 7% have been cancelled due to storms in the area. “Time to spare, go by air.” 🙂
May 30, 2024 at 8:14 pm
I hate being delayed at the airport, but with storms, there is really nothing you can do but wait.
May 30, 2024 at 8:13 pm
Hi Bob,
We too gave had a lot of rain. It rained twice today. Currently it is 55°, and I put on a sweatshirt. Tomorrow, though, should get as high as 70°.
We didn’t have Good Humor trucks or bicycles around here. The ice cream men were independent. If it weren’t for the distance you had to pedal, you would have had the perfect job. My father used to bring home ice cream from the office. The building had a huge freezer. He’d bring it home in a cardboard box, also with dry ice. We used to like to put water on the dry ice so it would smoke. I have tested a Chocolate Eclair but I don’t remember where.
Even here on the cape, the ice cream trucks had bells. There was no company running the trucks, just independent owners.
There are two local ice cream companies. One of my former students owns one of them. His ice cream is delicious. It is the brand I always buy. His chocolate chip has giant chips. They spoil you for any other brand.