Ice Cream, Oh How I Love You!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

I can't remember if I first heard that rhyme from my grandmother or her sister, Inez. Now, I don't know about you but I love ice cream and so did Inez! If it were up to me ice cream would be it's own food group and we would be required to eat at least one serving with each meal.

Last week's stroll down Memory Lane was all about my grandmother and popcorn (Popcorn and Sleeping at Grandma's house), this week is all about ice cream! Ice cream, for me, is more than a delicious cold treat, it is a big part of my life with scores of memories in each scoop. When I was growing up I spent two (2) weeks each summer visiting Inez along with my brother and sister. This was the highlight of my summer and it usually started right around July 4th. My grandmother's other sister, Viola, would host a big family reunion and then we would go from there to Inez's. She lived in a big farmhouse that belonged to my great-grandparents and it had a small, enclosed porch in the back. This porch housed the most important appliance in the house - a large chest freezer! The freezer had three or four compartments and I remember the furthest one from the door was filled with ice cream. All kinds of ice cream! Every night we would get a big bowl of ice cream to eat while watching television - shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Chiller Theatre, Creature Feature and The Twilight Zone - just to name my favorites. I often had butterscotch and maybe chopped nuts on mine. If we had gone out to eat for dinner it is quite possible we had ice cream for dessert but that wouldn't stop us from having it while watching television, too.

It has been more than 40 years since I spent a summer there - my siblings and I replaced by cousins - and the house, unfortunately, is no longer in the family but I still love having ice cream while watching television at night. I don't have a chest freezer (yet) and don't have ice cream every night but when I do I am instantly transported back to Flanders and the green vinyl easy chair that I sat in. When I was little we both sat in the chair together but as I got older the chair became "my spot" when I was there.

Not all of my ice cream memories come from my summers in Flanders and not all involve watching television. I can't eat a Good Humor bar - especially the Strawberry Shortcake - without thinking of church, Dilger's Market and my aunts, Chris and Cindy. I will explain. Most Sunday mornings I would go to Sunday School and then go back to my grandmother's house. There would be me, my brother and sister, and my aunts, who are only 10 and 11 years older than I. On the way home from church we would stop at Dilger's Market where my grandmother would get her newspapers and we would each get a Good Humor bar - I typically got the Strawberry Shortcake. I don't know when the market closed but it has been a very long time and I don't believe any store took it's place; the building is still there, boarded up and long since abandoned but I got a craving for a Strawberry Shortcake Good Humor bar....

Then there is Dairy Queen. My Little League team, the Lions, was coached by Mr. Marks. The Marks' lived a couple houses away from me and Johnny was one of my first friends when we moved there shortly after my 5th birthday. Mr. Marks coached Little League since before we even started playing and everyone in the neighborhood who played baseball played for the Lions. There were no exceptions that I know of. We always had a really good team and won most of the time. When we won we would all pile into a few cars - back then it was okay - and go to Dairy Queen for a celebratory ice cream cone. The big treat was the addition of the hard shell coating that we got on the cones. Years later I worked for a company just a few miles from the same Dairy Queen and would go there for lunch some days. Guess what I had for dessert when I did.... Every time I see a Dairy Queen I think of baseball, Little League and the friends I played with.

My parents used to take us to Carvel for an occasional treat. I remember that my "usual" was a sundae with vanilla soft serve and wet walnut topping. I still love that sundae but there aren't a lot of Carvel's around anymore. The one that we used to frequent is still an ice cream place but it is a privately owned store.

I think this is a good place to stop - I could go on for a while and have more stories but I heard you are supposed to "leave them wanting more" and so I stop. What are your ice cream inspired memories? What is your favorite flavor? I'd love to hear from you.