Thursday, March 08, 2007

Ice Cream and Men

As a little girl, before 3rd grade, I have vivid memories of summer evenings walking to the neighborhood Friendly’s for an ice cream cone. We’d get our cones from the walk-up window and then make our way back home, licking our ice cream. An important part of the walk was getting up on the stone wall near a church. My brother and I would hand off our cones to our dad to climb onto the wall.

We could never get the cones back once on the wall. My dad would be busy “cleaning them”. He would lick all the drippings along the side of the cone, half of the ice cream on top and possibly even nibble the cone. All in the name of cleaning up.

“MOM!!” we would both yell. “Get our cones back!”

She would order him to return the cones. While handing them back he would sheepishly say the same thing, “I was just cleaning them up.”

In fourth grade we had a real treat. We were going to an island as a family and our beloved Aunt and Uncle from Georgia joined us. The island had an ice cream parlor. Our uncle offered to share a sundae with my little brother. Talk about a set up. This grown man was going to eat all of the ice cream. Steal from a kindergartner.

Uncle would carefully collect ice cream, hot fudge and whip cream on his spoon. He talked about what a great looking spoonful he had. He delayed putting it in his mouth.

My brother scooped it right off of Uncle’s spoon and gobbled it. My Uncle made another “perfect” spoon. My brother did it again. Here was a man who was willing to let a kid take his ice cream.

Today, I married a man who eats ice cream on the sly. The kids and I will have carefully kept track of the ice cream, making sure the box lasts the entire week. They will do a good job eating their dinner and run to the freezer, pull out the ice cream, only to find that the box has barely enough ice cream in it to fill a thimble.

So begins their lesson you cannot trust daddies with ice cream.

Luckily for them, Aunt and Uncle from Georgia will join our family for this year's summer vacation on a different island. Thirty-one years after sharing a sundae with my brother. I’m already scouting out ice cream parlors.

This post was submitted to Scribbit's March Write-Away contest. The topic was childhood memories. For more about life in Alaska, check her out.

8 comments:

Trixie Twatwaffle said...

I LOVE your story. I too have memories of going to Friendly's for ice cream when I went to visit our family in massachusetts. And even better - our Friendly's had a trampoline place right down the block. We would eat our ice cream as we walked to the trampoline place. Woo hoo!! Never in today's society would they allow kids to pay a few bucks to jump on a trampoline without safety nets, helmets, elbow guards and a huge waiver...ahhh...to be young again.

Anonymous said...

It is amazing that you grew up to be such a generous, caring person. It is great that you had role models in addition to your dad.
jhs

Myth said...

Lol... my husband likes his icecream topped with cream and then sprinkled with sugar! I shudder to think of he and Wombat snacking together in the future ;P I'm sure they'll enjoy it immensely!

Anonymous said...

my dad does the same thing with ice cream.

luckily i love peanut butter and minty types ice cream and he doesnt!

Anonymous said...

That was a great story..I have an ice cream memory too...Amazing how certain childhood memories stick with us.

You may not remember what your uncle said on that trip, but you'll always remember how he made you feel..Love it.

Anonymous said...

My husband is the same kind of "cleaner" of ice cream your Dad was. He calls it "taxing" and now the kids are trained to just hand Dad the ice cream cone immediately upon receipt so he can "tax" it. Too funny! Great story! Thanks for sharing.

Geekwif said...

What a cute story! I love that your brother stole the ice cream right off your uncle's spoon. Very sweet.

Scribbit said...

I've been guilty of "fixing" ice creams cones too.