If Baskin Robbins can tout 31 flavors, we can certainly fill the next five days with ice cream adventures. Today we dig into some of your favorite memories. I'll indulge by starting off with a couple of my own.
Maybe I should tell of my long and illustrious four-year stint working at Haagen Dazs. Or, my three year stint at Yogurt Oasis (do you see a trend?). As much fun as it was, there's no great story to relay (other than every man on ASU's campus calling the store to see if Gail Trybolt was working that night. Gail is the brunette on the left with the deep tan. She was considered the female version of Big Man on Campus).
I could tell of my all-time favorite date. One of my college boyfriends majored in Aeronautical Engineering and was intent on being a pilot. One summer night - maybe even a first date - he ran in to pick me up from work. I say ran, because his car was a jalopy and he couldn't turn it off in fear that it wouldn't start again. Once in his car I noticed a zip lock bag with with two spoons and napkins inside. We were headed to the Phoenix airport with ice cream and the zip lock bag in hand. We spent the next couple of hours on the top level of parking lot watching planes land and eating ice cream. It seemed magical.
I could tell of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Fests, but I seem to remember talking about that crazy ritual in an earlier blog entry. ...A pint of ice cream for each participant. Pass to the left, pass to the right. Round and round it went until the last chip had been eaten. Five people, five pints. Ten people, ten pints. Ugh, gives me a sugar rush just thinking about it.
Then there is my son Ricky's favorite story. Every summer he goes to the quintessential all-boys summer camp in Tallulah Falls, Georiga. I'm talking rustic cabins; archery, riflery, and kayaking; a lake in the center of the camp - fully equipped with a "blob," where big kids catapult smaller kids into the water; no showers; a mess hall where slop is served three times a day; and a canteen where kids can buy snacks to compensate for the slop they didn't eat earlier in the night.
His first year as a young adult the counselors talked all week of the much anticipated ice cream hike. The story was, that for every pound worth of rocks the boys could carry up the mountain, they would receive a gallon of ice cream. The group of boys schemed all week about stuffing rocks into their pockets, back packs, and even canteens. They were motivated! Finally the day arrived and the boys executed their plan flawlessly. Each kid did their part by lugging close to their body weight in rocks for three miles straight up a mountain. When the boys arrived at the top and were ready to dig in, the counselors - intent on teaching them a life lesson - pointed to a huge pile of rocks and said, "If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is." The fact that Ricky remembers his counselor's words... VERBATIM is a good indication it worked.
Since it's summer, I think I''' finish with one of my own favorite camp memories.
As mentioned a few weeks ago, I worked at a great day camp about 50 minutes from my house. We drove to the wooded camp grounds every morning and drove back every evening. I feel lucky to have been a part of this ritual for so many years. The bus ride home was always much anticipated because every kid and every counselor knew this is when cups of ice cream were distributed. You might be able to envision the ones I'm talking about. Small cups, half vanilla, half chocolate. Pull back the tab and dig in with a small wooden stick wrapped in white paper. By the time the ice cream got to us, it was in a PERFECTLY... let me say that again... PERFECTLY melted state. The ice cream stuck to the lid when you pealed it back, leaving you no choice but to lick it off.
The real question was, "Who would get the extras?" Sometimes the counselors would hoard them because they could. Other days they would give them to kids who might have been celebrating a birthday, or to someone who could dig into their bag and deliver a specified item (red towel, deck of playing cards, blue pen). Sometimes they would just throw them out and let Darwanism take over. Every once in a while they'd actually make you work for the ice cream by posing trivia questions. Answer the question right and win the coveted cup.
I don't have one of those cups and chances are, if I did, it wouldn't still be around. But, I do have a $5.00 gift card to Marble Slab. Be the first to answer the trivia correctly and I'll toss it your way.
According to Sajid, manager of Marble Slab in Grapevine, Texas (where we had dessert tonight):
- The most ordered way to buy ice cream is cup or cone?
- The favorite topping is which candy bar?
- The busiest day of the week is?
- The flavor most ordered by children is...
- The average person asks for how many samples?
Signing off until tomorrow....
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