The topic of ice cream is a rich seam to mine.
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| mini ice cream cone |
My mother and her brother when children had the tantalising experience of watching their parents eat their way through their ice creams knowing that they were not allowed more than a teaspoon on the last inch of a cone - they thought ice cream was bad for you. This of course was the generation that believed the idea that taking up smoking would ward off the influenza that hit the country at the end of the World War 1! My Grandmother even gave Mum her first cigarette as a teenager during a flood emergency - to calm her I suppose.
Ice creams in my childhood are associated with a broken arm when I was nine when I fell from a tree and was given two ice creams to eat on the way to casualty to stop me thinking about the pain!
Later I had a lucky opportunity to join a school choir and go an their planned trip as compensation for a teacher accidentally squashing my finger flat in a partition during a school dinner time. The choir went to see Anne of Green Gables, the musical - my first ever experience of a live show. I came across the song about ice cream with the clever rhyming - is anything more delectable than ice cream? Even the most respectable eat ice cream... I am still singing and still love musicals. Funny how things happen.
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| Anne of Green Gables poster c1965 |
Later at 11 at secondary school an ice cream van was allowed into our school playground at lunchtime and we could buy glorious cones with hundreds and thousands on them for two old pennies. The highlight of the whole day sometimes.
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| ice cream van |
I had a dog who had a real penchant for ice cream. If she heard the van's chimes she would start to bark. Must have been something to do with the fact that she got that tiny cone of that sweet cold stuff whenever I succumbed. And I probably did quite a lot now I come to think of it...and now I have this van that has found a rich seam of its own right outside my house. Wait a minute while I relive all this and then grab my purse...
We used to call the ice cream man the Okey Okey Man. I can still remember how excited I got when I heard the chimes. I still feel like that a bit but don't buy any as we keep a supply in the freezer these days. It's not the same as those cones with soft swirling ice cream but I think it's healthier... just.
ReplyDeleteHow sad that people in the last century thought that cigarettes could ward off germs. It's partly the fault of the cigarette manufacturers. They hid the truth but that's another story.
Mmmm Ice cream, in fact anything soft, sweet and gooey was always used as a treat, a soother for upset feelings and a reward for being good or achieving something. Problem is now I am addicted, the thought of being deprived plunges me on a downward spiral of depression and raises a craving akin to those who frequent the crack scene. Nevertheless to say I am the size of a house! well done Susan for staying so petite and lovely :)
ReplyDeleteJan on FB said: I still yearn for an icecream from RICO, who signalled the arrival of his blue van by ringing a handbell. This must have been in the early sixties and my mouth waters even now as I remember that sweet, creamy, vanilla packed taste as we sat on the front lawn licking with rapture!
ReplyDeleteBridlestone and Ros
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts - meant to say I used to make brown bread icecream and that is pretty special too...more craving there!